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"Sift  of  the  President 


THE 


Lutheran  Church  in 
the  Country 


A  STUDY 

AN   EXPLANATION 

AN  ATTEMPTED  SOLUTION 


BY 

G.  H.  GERBERDING,  D.D.,  LL.D. 


AUTHOR  OF 

New  Testament  Conversions,   The    Lutheran    Pastor,  The   Lutheran 

Catechist,  Problems  and  Possibilities,  The  Way  of 

Salvation  in  the  Lutheran  Church,  The 

Life  and  Letters  of  Passarant. 


PHILADELPHIA 

GENERAL  COUNCIL  PUBLICATION  BOARD 

1916 


Gift  of  the  President 


COFYilGHI,  1916,  ly  I«« 

Board  of  Publication  of  the  General  Council 

of  the  Evangelical  Lutheran  Church 

in  North  America 


All  Eights  Reserved 


y^'b\-b 


TO 

All  Faithful  Country  Pastors 

Who  Love  the  Country; 

Who  Love  Country  People; 

Who  Love  the  Country  Church; 

Who  Appreciate  its  Importance; 

Who  Believe  in  its  Possibilities; 

Who  Believe  that  Lutheranism  will  Survive  in  the  Country 

BECAUSE  IT  IS  THE  FITTEST; 

This  Book  is  Affectionately 
DEDICATED 


PREFACE 

Some  one  has  said:  *'If  it  were  not  for  the 
stream  of  fresh,  pure,  uncontaminated  blood 
flowing  into  them  from  the  country  the  cities 
would  rot  in  their  own  iniquity/'  We  are 
sorry  to  be  compelled  to  believe  that  this  is 
true.  But  the  good,  pure  and  purifying  blood 
does  not  all  come  into  the  city  from  the  country 
districts  of  our  own  land.  Many  of  the  much 
maligned  **  foreigners ' '  from  the  country  dis- 
tricts of  the  old  world  are  a  saving  salt  of  no 
small  insignificance. 

This  book  wants  to  help  the  reader  to  under- 
stand country  people  and  to  appreciate  the 
worth  of  country  character.  It  desires  to  help 
the  country  pastor  to  remove  what  hinders 
and  hurts  country  character.  It  would  fain 
assist  him  to  get  a  right  understanding  of  his 
community  and  to  use  his  church  for  its  uplift. 
It  hopes  to  contribute  toward  the  saving  and 
strengthening  of  the  Lutheran  Church  in  the 
country. 

The  country  problem  is  peculiar.  Its  solu- 
tion is  difficult.  The  work  is  often  depressing. 
The  Lutheran  pastor  needs  a  better  under- 
standing of  the  situation. 


VI  PREFACE 

Much  has  been  written  on  the  country  church 
problem  by  men  outside  of  our  church.  We 
can  learn  from  these  writers.  We  have  used 
them  in  preparing  this  book.  But  there  is  much 
in  them  that  we  as  Lutherans  cannot  use.  After 
all,  we  are  different.  The  Lutheran  Church  has 
principles,  doctrines,  conceptions,  methods,  and 
a  spirit  that  are  all  her  own.  We  need  to  look 
at  the  country  church  from  our  own  viewpoint. 

The  problem  is  not  as  acute  among  us  as  it 
is  among  others.  But  there  are  clouds  and 
rumblings  on  our  church  sky  also.  In  some 
spots  the  Lutheran  Church  is  also  declining  in 
the  country.  If  we  do  not  study  the  situation 
and  guard  against  the  dangers  then  we  also 
will  have  to  suffer.    Forewarned  is  forearmed. 

Our  prayer  is  that  this  book  may  assist  and 
encourage  our  country  pastors.  Their  work 
is  important.  Their  opportunities  are  great. 
Their  sky  is  big  with  promise.    God  bless  them. 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS 


PART  I. 

IMPORTANCE   OF    THE    COUNTRY 

PAGE 
Chapteb  I. — ^Man's   Relation    to    the    Soil    as    God 

Made  It 11 

Chapteb         II. — ^Man's   Relation   to    the    Soil   as    Sin 

Made  It 15 

PAET  II. 

CONDITIONS    IN    THE    COUNTRY 

Chapteb        III. — Economic  Conditions  in  the  Country. .  23 
Chapteb        IV. — Psychological  Conditions  in  the  Coun- 
try    31 

Chapteb         V. — Social  Conditions  in  the  Country 40 

Chapteb        VI. — Educational  Conditions  in  the  Coun- 
try    48 

Chapteb       VII. — Religious  Conditions  in  the  Country. .  58 

PART  III. 

CAUSES  OF  COUNTRY  CONDITIONS 

Chapteb     VIII. — Causes  of  Church  Decline 7i 

Chapteb        IX. — Causes  of  Church  Decline  (Con't'd) . .  79 

vii 


Vlll 


CONTENTS 


PART  IV. 

THE   LUTHERAN  SITUATION  IN  THE  COUNTRY 

PAGE 

Chapteb  X. — Lutherans  and  Land 91 

Chapteb        XL— The    Lutheran    Situation    Today— A 

Bundle  of  Letters 98 

Chapter  XIL — The  Situation  and  Letters  (Con't'd) .  .106 
Chapteb  XIIL — The  Situation  and  Letters  (Con't'd) .  .115 
Chapteb     XIV. — Summarizing  the  Situation 126 

PAKT  V. 

COUNSELS  FOR  COUNTRY  PASTORS 

Chapteb       XV. — Right  and  Wrong  Remedies 137 

Chapteb  XVL— Right  and  Wrong  Remedies  (Con't'd). 143 
Chapter    XVIL— Remedies    (Continued) 149 

PART  VI. 

EXHORTATION    AND    EXAMPLE 

Chapteb  XVIIL— Right  Remedies 159 

Chapteb     XIX.— Right  Remedies    (Continued) 165 

PART  VII. 


INSPIRING  EXAMPLES 
Chapteb      XX.— A  Lutheran  Pastor's  Wonderful  Work..l77 
Chapter     XXI. — Oberlin's  Industrial  and  Social  Leader- 
ship     186 

Chapter  XXII. — Other  Inspiring  Examples 194 


Part  C^ne 

INTRODUCTORY 


And  God  said,  Let  the  earth  bring  forth 
grass,  the  herb  yielding  seed,  and  the  fruit  tree 
yielding  fruit  after  his  kind,  whose  seed  is  in 
itself,  upon  the  earth :   and  it  was  so. 

And  the  earth  brought  forth  grass,  and  herb 
yielding  seed  after  his  kind,  and  the  tree  yield- 
ing fruit,  whose  seed  wa&  in  itself,  after  his 
kind :  and  God  saw  that  it  was  good.     .     .     . 

And  the  Lord  God  formed  man  of  the  dust 
of  the  ground,  and  breathed  into  his  nostrils 
the  breath  of  life:  and  man  became  a  living 
soul. — Moses. 


CHAPTER  ONE. 

MAN 'S  RELiATION  TO  THE  SOIL  AS  GOD  MADE  IT. 

The  soil  was  made  by  God.  As  it  came  from 
the  creative  hand  it  was  free  from  hurtful  seed 
or  growth.  It  did  not  exhale  poisonous  vapors 
or  gases.  It  was  good.  It  was  clean.  It  was 
fruitful.  It  was  made  to  be  the  happy  abode 
of  happy  mankind.  For  this  God  had  fitted  and 
suited  the  soil. 

After  God  had  prepared  the  earth  for  man 
God  formed  man  out  of  the  soil.  The  soil  is  the 
material  out  of  which  God  made  man's  body. 
The  soil  is  the  source  from  which  man's  body 
came. 

This  old  truth  of  God's  own  creation  story 
has  been  corroborated  by  one  of  the  youngest 
of  the  physical  sciences.  Chemistry  has  de- 
monstrated that  every  substance  that  is  found 
in  the  human  body  is  found  also  in  the  soil. 

On  his  physical  side  man  is  related  to  the 
earth  on  which  he  walks  and  lives.  He  is  of 
the  earth,  earthy.  The  earth  is  his  mother. 
Brutus  was  not  so  far  wrong  when,  told  to  kiss 
his  mother,  he  prostrated  himself  and  kissed  the 
earth.    In  a  real  sense  it  is  ** Mother  Earth." 

The  earth  is  a  good  mother  to  man's  physical 
frame.    She  supplies,  directly  or  indirectly,  all 

11 


12  LUTHERAN  CHURCH  IN  THE  COUNTRY 

Ms  wants.  Is  he  hungry?  Her  grains,  her 
fruits,  her  earth-nourished  animals  furnish  him 
his  meat  in  his  season.  The  good  mother  has 
enough  for  all  if  her  children  will  only  take 
the  necessary  trouble  to  get  it  from  her.  Is 
he  thirsty?  The  waters  that  bubble  up  from 
her  springs,  that  are  drawn  from  her  wells, 
that  ripple  down  from  her  mountains,  burst 
forth  from  her  rocks,  flow  out  in  her  streams, 
or  lie  ready  in  her  seas,  quench  his  thirst.  The 
juices,  distillations  and  concoctions  from  her 
fruits,  flowers  and  grains  yield  the  more  taste- 
ful and  delicious  drinks.  Is  he  cold?  Would  he 
protect  himself  against  frost  and  icy  wind? 
Would  he  cover  his  nakedness  or  adorn  his  body 
and  make  it  a  thing  of  beauty  in  his  own  eyes 
and  in  the  eyes  of  his  fellows?  The  flax  and 
the  cotton  and  other  products  of  nature  are  at 
his  service.  Or,  if  he  prefer,  the  wool  and  hide 
and  hair  and  feathers  of  earth-fed  animals  are 
at  his  disposal. 

Does  he  want  further  shelter  where  he  may 
retire  and  rest  and  feel  secure  against  the  un- 
friendly elements  and  other  forces  or  dangers? 
Mother  earth  has  material  out  of  which  and 
with  which  he  may  frame  for  himself  a  shelter, 
a  dwelling,  a  home.  Does  he  need  heat  for 
more  comfort  or  for  making  his  foods  more 
palatable  and  healthful,  or  light  that  he  may 
see  after  the   darkness   falls?     Mother   earth 


MAN  'S  RELATION  TO  THE  SOIL.  AS  GOD  MADE  IT     13 

again  is  ready  to  provide  for  these  wants  also. 

Does  he  realize  that  it  is  not  good  for  him 
to  be  alone,  does  he  have  desire  for  sex,  for 
mating,  for  a  companion  in  his  home?  Even 
here,  living,  earthy  bodies  are  ready  for  him. 

And  when  at  last  this  poor,  earthy  body  must 
weaken  and  die,  the  good  mother  opens  her 
bosom,  takes  in  her  child,  wraps  him  around 
with  herself  and  so  gives  him  his  last  cool, 
quiet  bed.  Earth  to  earth,  ashes  to  ashes,  dust 
to  dust. 

Is  it  any  wonder  that  man  loves  the  soil,  the 
source  from  which  he  comes?  No,  it  is  no 
wonder.  It  is  but  natural.  There  is  a  mystic 
tie  between  man  and  material  nature.  And 
doubtless  this  explains  why  we  all  desire  a 
piece  of  ground  that  we  can  call  our  own.  For 
this  reason  we  feel  more  important,  we  get  a 
greater  self-respect,  we  have  a  new  and  more 
comfortable  feeling  when  we  are  owners  of 
something  that  is  real — real — estate. 

This  also  may  explain  the  danger  of  this 
otherwise  laudable  desire  of  becoming  a  real 
owner  of  realty.  The  danger  lies  in  the  fact 
that  this  desire  so  easily  and  so  often  becomes 
insatiable.  So  often  the  owner  of  land  becomes 
more  and  more  greedy  and  grasping  for  more 
and  ever  more  land.  The  more  he  has  the  more 
he  wants.  It  is  the  yielding  to  this  desire,  the 
gratifying  of  this  powerful  passion  that  has 


14  LUTHERAN  CHURCH  IN  THE  COUNTRY 

brought  untold  misery,  sorrow  and  suffering 
into  the  world. 

King  Ahab  was  a  rich  man.  He  had  a  big 
farm,  a  royal  estate,  but  he  and  his  wife  coveted 
his  neighbor's  vineyard.  The  desire  grew  into 
a  passion,  and  the  king  and  queen  became  mur- 
derers to  get  that  vineyard.  There  have  been 
many  like  them.  This  inordinate  and  sinful 
desire  for  more  land  has  brought  about  one  of 
the  serious  problems  of  the  country  church,  as 
we  shall  see. 

Man's  love  of  land  and  of  what  comes  from 
or  out  of  it  may  also  explain  his  deep  desire 
for  the  precious  metals  and  minerals  that  are 
hid  in  the  bowels  of  the  earth.  The  silver,  the 
gold,  and  the  precious  stones;  the  money  and 
the  jewels  made  out  of  them :  oh  how  they  are 
loved !  And  how  the  love  grows  into  a  power- 
ful, an  overpowering  passion  that  robs  man  of 
all  that  is  kind  and  good,  hardens  and  turns 
him  into  a  veritable  fiend. 

Truly  here  is  a  philosophy.  It  is  the  philoso- 
phy of  the  old  Book.  It  is  a  philosophy  that 
explains  much.  Man,  on  his  physical  side,  is 
related  to  the  earth.  He  loves  the  earth.  This 
love  may  become  a  snare  that  will  entangle  and 
enmesh  him  in  temporal  and  eternal  ruin. 
*  ^  Neither  shalt  thou  covet  thy  neighbor 's  house, 
nor  his  field. ' '  *  *  They  covet  fields  and  take 
them  by  violence.'*  *^The  love  of  money  is  a 
root  of  all  evil." 


CHAPTER  TWO. 


Man's  body  is  not  all  of  him.  He  is  more 
than  body.  God's  work  was  not  finished  when 
He  had  made  Adam's  body  out  of  the  dust  of 
the  ground.  God  breathed  into  his  nostrils. 
God — breathed!  God  breathed  the  breath  of 
life  into  man. 

Here,  then,  is  another  element  put  into  man. 
This  new  element  is  not  of  the  earth  earthy. 
Here  is  a  part  of  man  that  is  from  heaven.  It 
is  from  God.  It  came  out  of  God  into  man. 
What  a  thought!  If  on  the  one  side  of  my 
nature  I  am  related  to  the  ground,  on  the  other 
side  I  am  related  to  Heaven.  I  came  forth  from 
God.  If  one  side  of  me  is  earthy,  another  side 
of  me  is  heavenly.  And  man  became  a  living 
soul.  And  so  God  created  man  in  His  own 
image:    in  the  image  of  God  created  He  him. 

But  this  man,  dichotomous,  that  is,  made  of 
two  parts,  fell  into  sin,  lost  his  first  estate  and 
became  a  sinful  being.  As  the  race  was  in 
Adam,  the  race  fell  in  him. 

In  Adam's  fall 
We  sinned  all. 

And  when  the  crown  of  creation  fell,  crea- 
15 


16  LUTHERAN  CHURCH  IN  THE  COUNTRY 

tion  itself  was  affected.  Man's  relation  to  crea- 
tion was  changed.  God  decreed  ^^  cursed  is  the 
ground  for  thy  sake;  in  sorrow  shalt  thou  eat 
of  it  all  the  days  of  thy  life.  Thorns  and 
thistles  shall  it  bring  forth  to  thee;  and  thou 
shalt  eat  the  herb  of  the  field.  In  the  sweat  of 
thy  face  shalt  thou  eat  bread  till  thou  return 
unto  the  ground.  For  dust  thou  art  and  unto 
dust  thou  shalt  return.'* 

And  so  Mother  Earth  became  hardened 
against  her  offspring.  Instead  of  bringing 
forth  freely  only  that  which  was  agreeable  and 
good  for  man,  she  began  to  produce  her  ever 
recurring  crop  of  thorns  and  thistles,  her 
noxious  and  poisonous  weeds,  her  exhalations 
of  fever,  her  microbes  of  death. 

Poor  man !  If  the  Eden  that  he  lost  was  like 
the  Eden  that  through  the  Second  Adam  can  be 
regained,  then  there  was  *^  nothing  to  hurt  in 
all  God's  holy  mountain."  But  now  the  forces 
of  nature  had  become  hostile.  Now  he  must 
toil  and  sweat  to  wring  a  scanty  sustenance 
from  an  unwilling  soil.  Now  in  addition  to  his 
vegetable  foes  and  earth's  ofttime  hurtful 
breath,  there  are  a  thousand  insect  pests,  there 
are  tempests  and  droughts,  there  are  floods 
and  fires,  with  famine  and  pestilence  in  their 
wake.    All  because  of  sin. 

But  fallen  man  still  clings  to  fallen  earth. 
He  must.     He  cannot  subsist  without  it.     He 


17 


still  loves  land  and  what  he  can  get  from  its 
surface  or  dig  out  of  its  mines.  Too  often 
land-love  and  gold-love  are  his  ruin  for  both 
worlds. 

For  too  many,  on  the  other  hand,  the  priva- 
tion and  the  toil  of  the  country  are  too  much. 
They  want  an  easier  life.  They  would  fain 
find  a  living  with  less  of  sweat  of  face  or  of 
brain.  They  would  run  away  from  the  curse 
of  sin. 

For  this  they  forsake  the  land.  The  elders 
sell  or  rent  the  farm  and  retire  to  the  town  or 
the  city.  The  young  tire  of  the  exactions  of 
Mother  Earth  and  go  where  they  hope  to  make  a 
more  comfortable  living  with  less  hardship  and 
more  pay.  So  they  flee  the  farm  and  flock  to 
the  city.  They  imagine  that  the  city  will  be  a 
more  kindly  master.  They  ignore  the  hard  fact 
that  tens  of  thousands  who  had  bread  enough 
and  to  spare  in  the  country  home  perish  with 
hunger  and  go  down  to  ruin  in  the  great  city. 

So  farms  are  deserted  or  rented,  country  dis- 
tricts degenerate  and  counties  and  states  lose  in 
population.  The  country  church  suffers  because 
there  are  not  so  many  people  to  go  as  in  former 
years.  Among  those  that  are  left  life  is  harder, 
the  spirit  is  more  bitter.  Eebellion  against 
Providence  and  alienation  from  the  church 
abound.  And  so  the  country  church  suffers  more 
than  ever.    Of  all  this,  more  is  told  further  on. 

But  the  country  is  still  the  foundation  of 


18  LUTHERAN  CHURCH  IN  THE  COUNTRY 

national  and  social  well-being.  The  city  is  de- 
pendent on  the  country.  Those  who  forsake 
the  soil  cannot  live  without  it.  Should  the 
country  fail  to  produce  whence  would  the 
dwellers  of  the  city  get  to  consume?  The 
cities  of  India  and  China  are  decimated  from 
time  to  time  with  the  untold  horrors  of  famine 
because  the  rural  regions  fail  to  produce  the 
needed  crops.  The  dwellers  in  the  city  need 
to  appreciate  more  highly  the  toilers  in  the 
country.  Our  government  cannot  do  too  much 
for  the  farmer.  The  farmer  needs  all  the  help 
he  can  get  to  encourage  him  to  do  better  work 
and  to  get  better  returns.  The  state  dare  never 
say  of  the  farmer,  I  have  no  need  of  thee.  It 
will  be  a  sad  day  for  the  people  of  the  city  and 
of  the  state  when  the  country  and  its  agriculture 
deteriorate.  If  the  city  is  built  up  at  the  ex- 
pense of  the  country,  if  the  country  is  drained 
of  its  best  blood  to  make  the  city  strong,  then 
the  woes  must  fall. 

And  if  the  country  church  must  weaken,  if 
its  blessed  influence  must  withdraw  from  the 
hearts  and  homes  and  lives  of  those  who  dwell 
around  her  temples,  the  ruin  of  the  rural  re- 
gions must  come  on  apace.  If  the  country 
church  must  die,  if  its  communities  must  hea- 
thenize, then  will  the  desert  return,  barrenness, 
waste,  and  desolation  will  replace  the  erstwhile 
happy  land  and  happy  homes.  And  what  then 
of  the  common  weal  of  the  city  and  of  the  state ! 


MAN  'S  RELATION  TO  THE  SOIL.  AS  SIN  MADE  IT      19 

The  country  is  important.  It  needs  to  be 
made  more  and  more  prosperous.  Every  citi- 
zen of  our  great  nation  is  dependent  on  its  wel- 
fare.   All  have  a  deep  interest  in  its  prosperity. 

In  the  best  sense  of  the  word  the  country 
cannot  prosper  without  the  church.  The  church 
cannot  fulfill  its  mission  in  saving  the  nation 
without  saving  the  people  of  the  country.  She 
needs  to  save  them  in  the  broadest  sense  of  the 
word.  She  needs  to  save  them  from  sin  and  all 
its  baleful  consequences  in  this  life.  She  needs 
to  save  them  for  righteousness  and  true  holi- 
ness here.  She  needs  to  show  the  truth,  the 
realness,  the  pragmatic  value  of  the  promise 
of  the  life  that  now  is.  She  needs  to  make 
men,  women  and  children  holier  and  happier  in 
their  everyday  life.  She  needs  to  enrich  the 
heart  life,  the  home  life,  the  community  life. 
She  needs  to  make  the  life  in  the  country  and 
in  the  country  town  more  worth  living. 

And  all  this  without  forgetting  for  a  mo- 
ment, the  promise  of  the  life  that  is  to  come. 
Her  children  are  never  to  forget,  must  ever 
keep  in  mind  that  the  very  best  that  even  a 
child  of  God  can  have  in  this  world  is  not  to 
be  compared  with  the  things  that  God  has  in 
future  store  for  his  children.  The  richest  and 
happiest  life  in  this  world  is  but  a  feeble  fore- 
taste of  the  world  to  come  whereof  we  speak. 

We  need  to  understand  the  church  in  the 
country,  her  mission  and  her  possibilities. 


CdiitiiiUixinfi  in  tilt  fllotttill^ 


**This  is  the  place,  stand  still  my  steed, 

Let  me  review  the  scene 
And  summon  from  the  shadowy  path 
The  forms  that  once  have  been.'' 

— Longfellow, 

**Go  to  thy  birthplace  and  if  faith  was  there 
Eepeat    thy    father's    creed,    thy    mother's 
prayer. ' '  — Holmes, 

**Down  in  the  human  heart,  crushed  by  the 
tempter 
Feelings  lie  buried  that  Grace  can  restore; 
Touched  by  a  loving  heart,  wakened  by  kind- 
ness, 
Cords  that  were  broken  will  vibrate  once 
more."  — Bishop  Doane. 

**Eing  out  the  care,  the  want,  the  sin. 
The  faithless  coldness  of  the  times, 
Eing  out,  ring  out  my  mournful  rimes 
But  ring  the  fuller  minstrel  in." 

— Termyson, 

^  ^  Give  me  neither  poverty  nor  riches 

Lest  I  be  full  and  deny  Thee  and  say,  Who  is 
the  Lord  ?  Or  lest  I  be  poor  and  steal  and  take 
the  name  of  my  God  in  vain."        — Agur. 

**0  ye  hypocrites,  can  ye  discern  the  face  of 
the  sky,  but  can  ye  not  discern  the  signs  of 
the  times?"  —Christ, 


CHAPTER  THREE. 

ECONOMIC  CONDITIONS  IN  THE  COUNTRY. 

We  cannot  understand  the  country  church 
without  understanding  country  conditions. 
The  psychological,  the  social  and  the  spiritual 
conditions  all  are  more  or  less  dependent  on 
the  economic  condition.  This  is  a  truth  too 
often  forgotten  and  ignored  by  studious  and 
scholarly  theorizers.  After  all  the  speculations 
and  discussions  of  centuries  conditions  far 
more  than  theories  make  up  the  content  of  life. 
Lutheran  scholars  and  theologians  rightly  love 
the  sound  scriptural,  satisfying  and  saving 
doctrines  of  their  church.  The  writer  of  this 
yields  to  no  one  in  his  ever-increasing  appre- 
ciation, admiration  and  love  of  the  Lutheran 
theology.  But  he  is  also  impressed  more  and 
more  with  the  stubborn  fact  that  the  every  day 
conditions  under  which  people  live  their  every 
day  life  have  much  to  do  with  the  reception 
and  practice  of  what  the  church  teaches.  The 
seed  may  be  perfect,  but  if  the  soil  is  a  solid 
foot-path  or  wagon  road,  if  the  soil  is  a  shallow 
layer  over  a  substratum  of  rock,  if  the  soil  is 
filled  full  of  the  seeds  and  roots  of  noxious 

23 


24  LUTHEKAN   CHUECH  IN   THE  COUNTRY 

thorns  and  thistles  there  will  be  no  crop  from 
the  best  of  seed.  The  soil  needs  to  be  studied, 
treated,  and  made  fit  for  the  good  seed. 

What  then  are  some  of  the  general  economic 
conditions  of  the  dwellers  on  the  land  around 
the  country  church?  The  United  States  census 
of  1910  informs  us  that  at  the  time  of  its  tak- 
ing four  out  of  every  ten  farmers  of  our  nation 
were  renters.  What  seems  at  first  sight  as  a 
strange  fact  is  that  the  proportion  of  renters 
is  smallest  where  the  soil  is  poorest  and  is 
largest  where  the  soil  is  richest.  But  on  second 
thought  this  is  but  natural.  In  proportion  as 
the  soil  is  productive  does  the  owner  make  and 
save  money.  And  so  with  good  management 
he  becomes  independent,  rents  out  his  farm 
and  moves  to  the  town  or  city  as  a  retired 
farmer.  In  proportion  as  his  soil  is  unpro- 
ductive is  he  retarded  from  reaching  this 
coveted  goal,  but  must  continue  to  dig  a  bare 
living  from  his  stingy  acres.  In  the  wealthiest 
farming  states  of  the  middle  West  fully  fifty 
per  cent,  of  the  farmers  are  renters,  and  the 
counties  in  these  states  that  have  the  richest 
soil  have  the  largest  proportion  of  renters. 

These  renters  are  not  rooted  in  the  soil. 
They  have  no  interest  in  the  farm  except  to 
exploit  it  for  the  money  they  can  get  out  of  it. 
The  buildings  may  run  down  more  and  more. 
The  soil  may  become  more  and  more  impover- 


ECONOMIC  CONDITIONS  IN  THE  COUNTRY        25 

ished.  The  appearance  of  the  home  and  farm 
may  become  more  and  more  dilapidated  and 
forlorn.  The  tenant  as  a  rule  is  not  worried 
with  these  things.  It  is  not  his  own  home.  All 
he  wants  is  immediate  returns  in  money.  He 
is  constantly  on  the  lookout  for  a  farm  on 
which  he  may  do  better  for  himself.  He  is 
ready  to  move  at  any  time.  Sitting  thus  loosely 
and  uncertainly  in  his  residence  he  has  no 
neighborhood  interest.  Economic  and  social 
development  of  the  community  have  no  interest 
for  him.  Why  should  he  contribute  time,  effort 
or  money  for  public  roads,  public  schools  or 
churches?  He  may  not  be  here  next  year.  He 
is  of  little  economic  value  to  the  community. 
And  if  the  community  is  largely  made  up  of 
this  sort  of  dwellers  it  certainly  is  a  dreary 
place  to  live  in.  Even  from  an  economic  view- 
point its  situation  is  deplorable.  It  cannot  be 
progressive.  It  is  barren  of  promise  as  long 
as  conditions  remain  as  they  are. 

Professor  Thomas  Nixon  Carver,  an  expert 
authority  on  country  conditions,  has  this  to 
say  on  the  rural  renter  problem: 

*'Next  to  war,  pestilence  and  famine,  the 
worst  thing  that  can  happen  to  a  rural  com- 
munity is  absentee  landlordism.  In  the  first 
place,  the  rents  are  collected  and  sent  out  of 
the  neighborhood  to  be  spent  somewhere  else: 
but  this  is  the  least  of  the  evils.    In  the  second 


26         LUTHERAN  CHURCH  IN  THE  COUNTRY 

place  there  is  no  one  in  tlie  neighborliood  who 
has  any  permanent  interest  in  it  except  as  a 
source  of  income.  The  tenants  do  not  feel  like 
spending  any  money  or  time  in  beautifying  or 
in  improving  the  moral  or  social  surroundings. 
Their  one  interest  is  to  get  as  large  an  income 
from  the  land  as  they  can  in  the  immediate 
present.  Because  they  do  not  live  there,  the 
landlords  care  nothing  for  the  community  ex- 
cept as  a  source  of  rent  and  they  will  not  spend 
anything  in  local  improvements  unless  they  see 
that  it  will  increase  rent.  Therefore  such  a 
community  looks  bad  and  possesses  the  legal 
minimum  in  the  way  of  schools,  churches  and 
other  agencies  for  social  improvement. 

*  *  In  the  third  place,  and  worst  of  all,  the  land- 
lords and  tenants  live  so  far  apart  and  see  one 
another  so  infrequently  as  to  furnish  very  little 
opportunity  for  mutual  acquaintance  and  un- 
derstanding. Therefore  class  antagonism 
arises  and  bitterness  of  feeling  shows  itself  in 
a  variety  of  ways.  Where  the  whole  neighbor- 
hood is  made  up  of  a  tenant  class  which  feels 
hostile  toward  the  landlord  class  evasions  of 
all  kinds  are  resorted  to  in  order  to  beat  the 
hated  landlords.  On  the  other  hand  the  land- 
lords are  goaded  to  retaliation  and  the  rack- 
rent  system  prevails.  Sometimes  the  com- 
munity feeling  among  tenants  becomes  so 
strong  as  to  develop  a  kind  of  artificial  *  tenant 


ECONOMIC  CONDITIONS  IN  THE  COUNTBY        27 

right'  which  is  in  opposition  to  the  laws  of  the 
land,  and  the  laws  of  the  land  are  then  made 
more  severe  to  control  the  *  tenant  right.'  " 

Such  a  tenant  population,  without  lands  or 
homes  of  their  own,  becomes  migrative,  shift- 
less and  poor.  Life  is  robbed  of  all  charm. 
The  things  that  should  lighten  the  labors  of 
the  home  are  absent.  The  things  that  should 
brighten  the  life  are  not  found.  The  clothing  is 
cheap  and  shabby.  The  house  is  bare  and  un- 
attractive. Flowers  do  not  grace  the  outside 
and  what  should  be  a  lawn  is  a  wilderness  of 
weeds.  The  man  on  the  outside  must  toil  with 
primitive,  defective  and  dull  tools.  His  labor 
is  tenfold  more  laborious  and  tenfold  less  pro- 
ductive than  it  would  be  with  the  latest  im- 
proved tools  and  machinery.  In  many  places 
he  does  not  even  own  the  tools  and  animals  on 
the  place.  In  these  cases  his  interest  in  them 
is  still  less. 

On  the  inside  the  wife  must  drudge  through 
her  daily  round  without  the  modern  labor- 
saving  and  comfort-bringing  furnishings.  As 
best  she  can  she  must  go  through  her  dreary 
tasks  with  no  outlook  of  hope  or  betterment. 
The  things  that  should  lighten,  brighten,  beau- 
tify, develop  and  enrich  every  woman 's  life  are 
not  for  her.  And  so  all  noble  ambition  in  father 
and  mother  either  dies  out  or  they  arrange  to 
leave  the  country  and  try  the  town  or  city. 


28  LUTHERAN   CHURCH   IN   THE   COUNTRY 

Tliey  reason  that  life  cannot  be  much  worse, 
and  should  it  be  even  harder  there  will  be  com- 
pensations in  being  able  to  break  up  the  deadly- 
monotony,  to  find  some  diversion  or  excitement, 
or  at  worst,  to  have  fellowship  in  lifers  sor- 
rows. 

And  what  of  the  young  people  that  grow  up 
in  such  country  hardship  and  poverty?  Is  it 
not  the  most  natural  thing  in  the  world  that 
they  should  make  up  their  minds  quite  early 
that  they  and  their  future  families  are  not  go- 
ing to  live  like  poor  father  and  mother  live? 
They  too  plan  for  the  promising  life  in  city  or 
town. 

And  so  the  depletion  of  the  country  goes  on 
apace.  Not  in  all  places  alike.  The  above  dark 
picture  does  not  describe  all  rural  communities. 
We  are  glad  to  know  that  there  are  many  bright 
exceptions.  Of  these  we  shall  speak  in  other 
chapters.  But  that  the  sad  conditions  set 
forth  above  prevail  all  too  widely,  and  often 
in  our  best  and  richest  regions,  is  demonstrated 
by  the  following  facts : 

Over  twenty  years  ago  Dr.  Josiah  Strong, 
who  always  knows  whereof  he  speaks,  affirmed 
that  nine  hundred  and  thirty  townships  in 
New  England  were  losing  in  population.  Six 
hundred  and  forty  townships  in  New  York,  nine 
hundred  and  nineteen  in  Pennsylvania,  and 
seven  hundred  and  seventy  five  in  Ohio  were 


ECONOMIC  CONDITIONS  IN  THE  COUNTRY        29 

likewise  losing.  On  these  facts  of  his  own 
gathering  he  commented  thus:  ^*If  this  mi- 
gration continues,  and  no  new  preventing 
measures  are  devised,  I  see  no  reason  why  isola- 
tion, irreligion,  irgnorance,  vice  and  degrada- 
tion should  not  increase  in  the  country  until  we 
have  a  rural  American  peasantry,  illiterate  and 
immoral,  possessing  the  rights  of  citizenship 
but  utterly  incapable  of  performing  or  compre- 
hending its  duties." 

In  the  decade  preceding  1910  the  rural  town- 
ships of  Illinois  lost  eleven  hundred  and  thir- 
teen in  population.  During  the  same  time 
seventy  per  cent,  of  the  rural  townships  of 
New  York  registered  a  loss.  Worse  losses  are 
reported  from  rural  New  England.  While 
DesMoines,  Iowa,  during  that  decade  gained 
over  twenty-four  thousand  and  every  city  of 
over  eight  thousand  in  that  state  grew,  that  rich 
state  as  a  whole  lost  seven  thousand!  Eural 
Indiana  lost  over  eighty-three  thousand ;  rural 
Missouri  over  sixty-eight  thousand.* 

Here,  then,  are  some  big  problems  for  the 
church  in  the  country.  The  church  cannot  live 
and  prosper  in  a  community  whose  inhabitants 
are  deteriorating  financially  and  morally.  The 
church  is  ever  dependent  on  the  home.    Where 

♦For  the  facts  and  figures  here  stated  we  are  indebted 
to  G.  Walter  Fiske's  illuminating  and  comprehensive  book, 
"The  Challenge  of  the  Country." 


so  LUTHERAN   CHURCH   IN    THE   COUNTRY 

the  home  demoralizes  the  church  life  must 
suffer.  The  church  cannot  grow  where  the 
population  is  diminishing.  The  church  must 
look  these  problems  in  the  face. 


CHAPTER  FOUR. 

PSYCHOLOGICAL.  CONDITIONS  IN  THE  C50UNTRY. 

The  Rural  Mind. 

We  are  studying  conditions  in  the  country. 
We  have  looked  at  the  economic  situation. 
That  situation  has  its  influence  on  the  people 
who  dwell  where  it  obtains.  The  old  saying 
that  human  nature  is  always  and  everywhere 
the  same  is  true.  Fundamental  human  nature 
does  not  change.  Its  manifestations,  its  habits, 
its  activities,  however,  do  vary  and  change. 
Humanity  is  influenced  by  environment.  People 
are  modified  by  their  surroundings.  Environ- 
ment does  make  great  and  lasting  changes  in 
the  life,  habits  and  character  of  people.  These 
changes  are  not  sudden.  They  often  come 
slowly.  Those  who  are  affected  are  often  un- 
conscious of  it.  Evil  communications  corrupt 
good  manners.  Companionship  is  a  mighty 
moulder  of  men.  When  cultured  and  refined 
people  through  misfortune  or  bad  habits  drift 
into  the  slums  and  live  there  for  years,  almost 
inevitably  they  and  their  families  are  changed. 
They  naturally  absorb  the  social  mind  of  the 

31 


32         LUTHERAN  CHURCH  IN  THE  COUNTRY 

slum  in  which  they  live.  Long  term  prisoners 
come  out  with  minds  and  characters  different 
from  those  that  they  took  into  confinement. 

We  would  not  be  understood,  however,  as 
believing  or  teaching  that  every  one  is  fated  to 
be  fashioned  by  his  surrounding.  Man  has  a 
will.  He  can  change  his  environment,  rise 
above  it  or  get  away  from  it.  Above  all  must 
we  bear  in  mind  that  the  grace  of  God  can 
enable  one  to  remain  bright  among  the  dull,  to 
remain  clean  among  the  unclean,  to  be  and 
remain  morally  strong  in  the  midst  of  moral 
degenerates.  We  do  not  subscribe  to  the  deter- 
ministic or  fatalistic  philosophy  that  makes  of 
man  a  helpless  slave  to  either  his  heredity  or 
his  environment.  We  believe  in  a  psychologi- 
cally free  will  and  in  a  theological  freedom, 
conditioned  by  the  acceptance  of  the  means  of 
grace.  But  with  all  this  we  acknowledge  the 
powerful  injfluence  of  environment. 

Country  life  has  an  environment  that  is  all 
its  own.  It  is  totally  different  from  the  en- 
vironment of  life  in  the  city.  It  molds  and 
makes  habit  and  character.  It  produces  a  rural 
type,  a  rural  mind. 

Those  who  have  been  reared  in  or  lived  long 
in  the  country  are  apt  to  acquire  the  habits  and 
manners  of  their  neighbors.  These  habits  of 
mind  and  spirit  become  more  and  more  fixed. 
While  they  vary  more  or  less  with  locality,  the 


PSYCHOLOGICAL  CONDITIONS  IN  THE  COUNTRY        33  s 

underlying  traits  are  much  the  same  the  land  ] 

over.    It  is  of  vital  importance  that  we  under-  | 
stand  the  rural  mind  and  character. 

The  dweller  on  the  land  lives  in  close  contact  , 
with  nature.  As  he  is  dependent  on  nature  he  ■ 
needs  to  understand  her.  To  understand  he  ; 
must  needs  observe  and  study  her.  He  is  per- 
force a  thinker.  He  notes  the  processes  of  nature.  / 
He  observes  that  her  operations  are  slow.  He  ! 
cannot  force  her  to  abandon  her  course.  Her  ; 
times  and  seasons  are  relentless.  Her  weather  i 
is  inexorable.  Her  moods  are  merciless.  She  ^  ! 
pays  no  heed  to  his  needs,  his  comforts  or  his  , 
greatest  desires.  There  is  a  majesty  of  calm-  1 
ness  in  her  light  heed  of  human  weal  or  woe.  | 
The  farmer  must  realize  his  dependence,  his 
helplessness,  his  insignificance  over  against  that  ; 
nature  in  which  he  lives  and  labors  and  on  j 
which  he  depends.  Her  smiles  and  her  tears,  1 
her  songs  and  her  sighs,  her  sun  and  her  storni  ^ 
are  all  independent  of  him.  j 

If  he  is  an  earnest  thinker  he  must  see  that  ] 

there  is  a  disturbing  element  in  nature.    Her  ' 

killing  cold,  her  burning  heat,  her  destructive  | 

storms,  her  perennial  pests  all  show  that  there  ;; 

is  something  wrong.     In  his  daily  struggles  | 

against  all  these  foes  he  must  ask.  Why  is  it  , 

thus?    If  he  reads  and  ponders  the  old  story  j 

of  the  fall,  of  sin,  of  its  effects  on  the  whole  | 

material   creation,   if   he   hears    these    things  : 


34  LUTHERAN   CHURCH   IN   THE   COUNTRY 

rightly  explained  in  his  church,  he  has  the  only 
explanation  that  really  explains.  It  gives  him 
food  for  his  quiet  meditations.  It  rests  and 
satisfies  his  inquiring  mind.  The  unbelieving 
farmer  has  no  such  explanation,  no  such  un- 
derstanding, no  such  satisfaction. 

Meantime  his  quiet  meditative  life,  Ms  dis- 
cipline in  watching  and  waiting,  his  need  of 
conquering  hindrances,  of  beginning  over  and 
over  again,  of  hoping  where  he  sees  no  hope, 
of  trusting  in  Him  who  is  above  nature  and 
rules  over  her,  all  this  is  calculated  to  make 
him  patient,  quiet,  calm,  believing  that  all  is 
well  or  will  be  well. 

Life  in  the  country  tends  to  make  man  con- 
servative. The  farm-dweller  likes  the  old.  He 
is  inclined  to  be  suspicious  of  the  new.  He  is 
a  traditionalist.  The  old  ways  of  thinking,  the 
old  ways  of  doing,  the  old  traditions,  the  old 
beliefs,  these  appeal  to  him.  What  was  good 
enough  for  his  forefathers  is  good  enough 
for  him.  New  fangled  fashions  and  ways  and 
notions  are  fraught  with  mischief  if  not  with 
sin.  It  is  hard  to  convince  him  that  the  world 
moves,  that  times  change,  and  that,  in  a  good 
sense,  we  ought  to  change  with  the  times. 

The  countryman  is  hard  to^  change.  His  un- 
reasoning conservatism  is  often  an  injury  to 
himself.  If  he  is  bad  he  seems  to  want  to 
remain^  bad.    His  wrong  notions  do  a  grievous 


PSYCHOLOGICAL  CONDITIONS  IN  THE  COUNTRY        35 

wrong  to  Ms  wife  and  children.  Many  a  poor 
woman  in  the  farm-house  is  a  prisoner,  a 
drudge,  a  slave,  because  her  husband  is  stingy, 
does  not  believe  in  beauty,  in  even  harmless 
recreation,  in  the  dress  that  a  good  woman 
craves,  in  improved  and  labor-saving  house 
equipment.  She  is  a  martyr  to  his  senseless 
conservatism.  No  wonder  that  the  children  run 
away  from  such  a  father  as  soon  as  they  can. 
But  the  hopeless  wife  must  stay.  Should  we  not 
run  away  also? 

If,  however,  our  farmer  is  a  good  man,  if  he 
is  properly  instructed  and  enlightened,  then  his 
conservatism  is  a  valuable  virtue.  Lack  of  con- 
servatism, lack  of  balance,  impulsiveness  and 
flightiness  are  weaknesses  of  our  age.  We 
sorely  need  well-balanced,  right-motived,  and 
wise  conservatism.  To  throw  away  all  that  is 
old  for  no  other  reason  than  that  it  is  old  is  as 
foolish  as  to  love  and  to  hold  on  to  the  old  for 
the  same  reason.  The  wise  and  judicious  con- 
servation loves  the  old  only  when  it  is  good, 
and  as  long  as  he  finds  nothing  better.  If  the 
country  man  is  possessed  of  such  wise  and  good 
conservatism  he  is  a  valuable  citizen,  and  ought 
to  be  a  good  churchman.  Such  men  can  be  re- 
lied upon.  They  can  be  tied  to.  The  church 
needs  them.  The  true  pastor  uses  them.  They 
make  good  Lutherans.    The  Lutheran  Church, 


36  LUTHERAN   CHURCH   IIST   THE  COUNTRY 

in  proportion  as  they  understand  her,  appeals 
to  them.    She  satisfies  them. 

The  dweller  on  the  land,  living  apart  from 
the  multitude,  spending  most  of  his  waking 
hours  with  no  companion  but  himself  and 
nature  is  apt  to  become  a  pronounced  individ- 
ualist. The  individualist  easily  becomes  selfish. 
The  selfish  man  may  become  a  danger  to  his 
family,  his  neighborhood  and  his  church — if  he 
has  a  church.  The  selfish  man  is  a  bad  man. 
His  selfishness  opens  the  door  to  various  vices. 
As  selfishness  is  the  most  pronounced  mani- 
festation of  sin,  all  men  have  more  or  less  of  it. 
The  selfish  man  knows  how  to  appeal  to  the 
sub-conscious  selfishness  in  others.  As  he  is 
himself  a  surly,  an  unhappy  man,  and  as  misery 
loves  company,  he  wants  others  to  be  like  him. 
He  is  in  danger  of  becoming  a  leader,  a  *^sir 
oracle ' '  at  the  country  store,  at  the  town,  school 
or  church  meeting.  He  is  a  heart-sore  to  many 
a  country  parson. 

As  the  dweller  in  the  country,  unless  he  be 
a  hired  man,  is  his  own  boss,  there  is  often  a 
temptation  and  a  tendency  to  laziness.  Where 
this  is  jaelded  to  we  find  the  slip-shod,  happy- 
go-lucky  unsuccessful  farmer.  His  shiftless- 
ness,  and  thriftlessness  make  and  keep  him 
poor.  Unless  he  inherits  it,  or  marries  it,  he 
does  not  become  a  land-owner  but  is  a  renter. 
He  blames  his  poverty  on  the  soil,  the  climate, 


PSYCHOLOGICAL  CONDITIONS  IN  THE  COUNTRY        6i 

the  weather  or  the  government.  He  also  is 
often  a  loafer,  a  talker  who  loves  to  air  his 
grievances  in  public  places.  He  is  a  poor  hus- 
band, an  unfortunate  father,  a  profitless  citi- 
zen, an  unworthy  churchman,  a  detriment  to 
the  community.  At  heart  he  also  is  selfish.  He 
also  is  an  individualist.  His  philosophy  of  life 
is  too  often  listened  to  in  the  country.  He  is  a 
poisoner  of  the  minds  of  youth.  He  is  often 
found  in  the  open  country.  More  often  in  the 
country  town. 

Because  the  farmer  is  prone  to  be  an  individ- 
ualist he  is  often  stubborn  and  impatient  of 
advice.  He  prides  himself  in  his  own  opinions, 
and  refuses  to  be  enlightened.  His  opinionated 
narrow  stubbornness  is  a  barrier  to  mental 
development.  He  is  joined  to  his  idols.  Only 
the  grace  of  God  can  renew  and  change  him. 

Because  of  individualism  we  find  such  bitter 
feuds  in  country  communities.  We  find  the 
hard,  relentless  and  unforgiving  spirit.  We 
find  husbands  and  wives,  parents  and  children, 
neighbors  and  church-members  who  do  not 
speak  to  each  other  for  weeks,  months  and  even 
for  years.  We  find  feuds  and  factions  among 
relations  and  in  the  country  churches.  Many  a 
country  church  has  been  wrecked  and  ruined 
by  such  unrelenting,  unforgiving,  bitter,  venge- 
ful feuds  and  factions. 

Surely  the  country  is  a  good  place  to  study 


38         LUTHERAN   CHURCH   IN   THE  COUNTRY 

human  nature.  Here  we  find  it  in  its  native 
crudeness.  Here  it  is  unconcealed  by  the  arts 
of  insincere  etiquette.  Here  the  so-called  white 
lies  of  polite  society  have  not  yet  done  their  de- 
ceiving and  destructive  work.  Here  men  have 
not  yet  learned  or  adopted  Tallyrand's  pernic- 
ious principle  that  human  speech  is  given  that 
man  may  use  it  to  deceive  his  fellow  man.  Here 
is  naked,  native  human  nature. 

But  for  this  very  reason,  that  there  is  less 
concealment  of  the  true  self,  less  artificiality, 
less  hiding  of  motive  and  intent,  because  all  is 
more  open  and  above-board,  because  the  heart, 
the  spirit,  the  life  can  be  known,  the  country 
presents  a  more  hopeful  field  for  Christian  en- 
deavor. 

With  all  their  individualism,  with  all  their 
peculiarities  and  eccentricities,  country  people 
present  a  most  inviting  field  for  the  church. 
The  farmer  loves  to  meet  and  get  acquainted 
with  a  manly  man.  He  has  neither  time  nor 
use  for  an  upstart,  for  a  sham,  for  a  conceited 
pretender.  He  is  open  to  manly  approach.  His 
confidence  needs  to  be  won  first.  When  once 
his  confidence  is  won  he  is  eager  and  ready  to 
learn.  He  wants  something  to  think  about,  to 
talk  about,  to  take  pride  in,  to  be  satisfied  with. 

On  account  of  his  meditative  tendency  he  is 
open  to  the  deeper  truths  of  revelation.  When 
once  he  comprehends,  apprehends  and  experi- 


PSYCHOLOGICAL  CONDITIONS  IN  THE  COUNTRY        39  i 

\ 

ences  the  great  vital  doctrines  of  sin  and  grace  \ 

they  are  to  him  the  pearl  of  great  price.    He  is  ] 

a  most  promising  subject  for   the   Lutheran  | 

Church.     Her  teaching  and  her  appeal  appeal  ! 
to  him. 


CHAPTER  FIVE. 

SOCIAIi  CONDITIONS  IN  THE  COUNTRY. 

In  the  country  the  homes  are  more  or  less 
isolated.  Miles  of  distance  often  separate  the 
families.  The  roads  and  gates  between  the 
homes  make  access  and  intercourse  more  or 
less  difficult.  Man  cannot  talk  over  the  news 
and  topics  of  the  day  with  neighbors  in  the 
same  block,  across  the  street  or  on  the  same 
front  porch.  Women  cannot  run  in  for  a  chat 
next  door  or  gossip  over  the  back  fence.  Chil- 
dren cannot  play  with  others  on  the  front  street. 
The  sounds  of  their  laughter  or  shouting  do  not 
come  into  the  open  window.  The  neighbor's 
song  or  phonograph  or  piano  is  not  heard. 
With  the  exception  of  nature's  sounds  all,  out- 
side of  the  family  voices  and  sounds,  is  stillness. 
Outside  of  the  family  many  days  and  weeks 
may  be  spent  without  seeing  another  face  or 
hearing  another  human  voice.  The  frequency 
or  infrequency  of  this  depends  on  the  social  or 
unsocial  spirit  of  the  family.  Some  families 
get  all  the  sociability  that  is  good  for  them. 
Others    are   veritable    hermitages.      A    stern, 

40 


SOCIAL  CONDITIONS  IN  THE  COUNTRY  41 

surly,  selfish,  unsocial  head  of  a  house  may 
practically  isolate  or  imprison  his  family. 

At  best  the  isolation  of  a  farm  home  is  a 
characteristic  of  life  in  the  country  that  needs 
to  be  studied. 

The  farm  family  should  have  a  well  developed 
social  life  within  itself.  This  is  all  too  fre- 
quently made  impossible  by  greed  and  over- 
work. Where  every  member  of  the  household 
day  after  day  works  to  the  limit  of  physical 
exhaustion  sociability  dies  out.  In  such  homes 
people  have  neither  time  nor  inclination  to  be 
civil.  They  are  too  tired  to  talk.  Words  be- 
come few  and  hard.  Sympathy,  affection  and 
kindliness  cannot  thrive  in  such  an  atmosphere. 
Such  overwork  is  a  serious  sin.  It  flourishes  in 
farm  homes. 

The  most  grievous  sin  is  against  the  wife  and 
the  growing  children.  To  the  sin  against  the 
wife  we  have  referred  before.  Many  farm- 
wives  die  or  go  insane  from  tread-mill  toil  and 
loneliness.  Their  unsympathetic,  greedy  and 
hard-hearted  husbands  make  martyrs  of  them. 

The  children  are  overworked.  Much  is  writ- 
ten and  said  against  child  labor  in  mill  and 
mine  and  factory.  The  protest  against  such  in- 
human cruelty  cannot  be  too  loud.  The  guilty 
employers  cannot  be  pilloried,  censured  and 
execrated  too  severely.  But  what  of  over- 
worked children  on  the  farm?  The  long  hours  in 


42         LUTHERAN  CHURCH  IN   THE  COUNTRY 

field  and  garden  and  barn,  the  everlasting 
chores  after  the  long  day's  work  ought  to  be 
done,  the  exposure  to  wet  and  cold  and  heat, 
the  scant  home  comforts,  the  absence  of  time 
and  opportunity  for  play — oh  the  unspeakable 
sadness  of  a  joyless  childhood!  The  crime  of 
robbing  children  of  what  God  wants  them  to 
have !  It  is  a  sin  that  abounds  among  farmers. 
No  legacy  left  behind  for  such  children  can 
ever  atone  for  the  robbing  of  childhood  joys. 
Among  the  very  best  legacies  that  parents  can 
bequeath  is  the  memory  of  a  happy  childhood. 

The  home  life  on  the  farm  could  and  should  be 
the  happiest  of  all.  It  holds  a  high  place  in  the 
literature  of  all  lands.  Art  has  given  it  a 
unique  charm.  The  pictures,  the  stories,  the 
songs  of  the  country  home  have  been  the  delight 
of  all  ages.  We  all  linger  over  and  love  them 
today. 

In  the  right  kind  of  a  country  home  the  hus- 
band and  wife  are  loving  partners.  Both  work 
but  neither  overworks.  Their  interests  and 
their  joys  are  shared  with  each  other.  They 
miss  each  other  when  separated.  They  love 
each  other's  society.  There  are  no  secrets  be- 
tween them.  In  their  social  hours  with  each 
other  they  talk  over  their  separate  and  their 
common  interests.  Each  is  a  helper  to  the 
other.  Each  consults  the  needs  and  desires  of 
the  other.    Each  tries  to  make  the  life  of  the 


SOCIAL  CONDITIONS  IN   THE  COUNTRY  43 

other  richer  and  happier.  Each  rejoices  in  the 
other's  joy.  Their  social  life  with  each  other 
is  a  happy  life. 

Such  parents  are  also  companions  to  their 
children.  The  mothers  and  daughters  are  in- 
separable. The  father  is  the  best  chum  for 
the  boys.  All  love  each  other's  society.  The 
parents  provide  games,  plays  and  all  sorts  of 
amusements  for  the  little  ones  and  often  play 
with  them.  There  are  clean,  wholesome  and 
interesting  books  and  papers  for  the  older  ones. 
These  are  read  by  parents  and  children  and 
are  talked  over  with  each  other.  There  is 
music  in  the  home.  Girls  and  boys  are  given 
lessons.  Art  is  encouraged  where  there  are 
talent  and  taste  for  it.  The  girls  are  instructed 
and  get  practice  in  the  domestic  arts  as  well 
as  in  fancy  work.  The  boys  have  rooms  and 
places  for  useful  and  interesting  pastimes. 
Tools,  printing  presses,  electrical  appliances 
are  furnished  and  their  use  encouraged.  And 
so  the  home  is  a  happy  society.  It  has  a  rich 
soul-life  of  its  own. 

In  such  a  home  there  is  an  absence  of  that 
rather  low  and  common  conversation  that 
characterizes  so  many  country  families  and 
neighborhoods.  In  the  model  home  all  the  in- 
mates can  and  do  discuss  great  thoughts  and 
great  interests.  In  too  many  places  the  talk  is 
about  the  neighbors'  faults,  misfortunes  and 


44         LUTHERAN   CHURCH  IN   THE   COUNTRY 

peculiarities.  The  family  group  and  other 
groups  seem  to  gloat  over  accidents,  sufferings, 
calamities,  and  gruesome  things  of  all  kinds. 
Sickness,  suffering,  death  of  man  or  of  beast 
are  rehashed  and  rehearsed  with  every  dire  de- 
tail. Other  people's  mistakes,  weaknesses, 
faults,  falls  and  sins  are  exposed  and  gloated 
over.  The  mind  is  kept  full  of  sad  and  often 
repulsive  pictures.  The  soul  is  dwarfed  and 
degraded.  Life  is  narrowed  and  impoverished, 
^hat  a  sad  and  sinful  social  life  to  live. 

But  even  where  the  highest  and  best  social 
life  obtains  in  the  family  there  is  need  of  a 
neighborhood  life.  A  model  family  may  be- 
come too  much  self-centered.  This  would  breed 
egotism,  pride  and  narrowness.  As  no  individ- 
ual, so  no  family  ought  to  live  to  itself.  Each 
family  and  each  member  of  every  family  has 
a  social  obligation  to  his  community.  In  this 
respect  also  there  are  frequent  failures.  There 
are  communities  in  which  little  if  any  neigh- 
borhood spirit  exists.  The  neighbors  seldom 
meet.  Some  of  them  never,  unless  a  funeral 
should  bring  them  together. 

In  the  more  olden  time  neighbors  could  not. 
do  mthout  each  other.  There  were  frequent 
occasions  that  brought  them  together.  Barn 
or  house-raisings,  huskings  and  threshings  de- 
manded the  men.  The  women  went  along  to 
cook.     And   so   days   were   spent  in   working 


SOCIAL,  CONDITIONS  IN  THE  COUNTRY  45 

together  and  eating  together.  There  was  a 
great  social  value  in  these  meetings.  Such  days 
were  often  finished  up  with  parties  for  the 
young  people.  Where  nothing  wrong  was  en- 
gaged in  such  assemblings  of  the  youth  of  a 
community  were  a  good  thing.  Young  people, 
if  they  are  not  to  become  abnormal,  need  to 
get  together.  In  the  long  and  more  leisurely 
winters  there  were  quiltings  for  the  older 
women,  spelling  bees,  debating  societies,  sing- 
ing schools  for  all.  In  many  places  there  were 
and  are  grange  and  neighborhood  picnics,  re- 
unions and  old  home  weeks  in  the  after  harvest 
season. 

Many  of  these  social  events  we  are  sorry  to 
say  are  now  out  of  fashion.  Their  absence  is 
a  distinct  loss  to  country  life. 

As  remarked  above,  the  normal  soul  craves 
society.  This  is  especially  true  of  the  young. 
Even  in  the  adolescent  period  the  boy  wants 
his  gang  and  the  girl  wants  her  set.  It  is  a 
craving  of  the  nature  as  God  made  it.  In  pro- 
portion as  this  social  craving  is  unsatisfied  in 
the  home,  in  proportion  as  the  neighborhood 
does  not  furnish  sufficient  occasion  for  whole- 
some social  satisfaction,  in  that  proportion  will 
the  youth  seek  gratification  elsewhere. 

The  growing  boy  on  the  farm  and  more  so 
in  the  country  town  will  find  other  boys  who 
feel  like  himself.    The  gang  will  get  together. 


46  LUTHERAN   CHURCH   IN   THE  COUNTRY 

If  there  is  no  good  place  with  a  pure  air  and 
healthful  recreation,  he  will  meet  others  in  the 
livery  barn,  in  the  pool  room,  or  in  the  saloon. 
Society  he  craves,  his  nature  cries  out  for  it. 
Society  he  will  have.  Here  is  a  family  and  a 
community  responsibility. 

And  the  sexes  will  get  together.  They 
must  get  together.  God  made  them  for  each 
other.  Happy  is  the  home  that  makes  provision 
for  and  encourages  the  young  men  and  the 
maidens  to  meet  together  in  groups  as  well  as 
in  pairs.  Unhappy  the  parents  that  force  their 
children  to  steal  away  to  find  the  companion- 
ship they  crave  and  have  a  right  to  have. 

The  father  should  also  frequently  take  wife 
and  children  to  the  city.  A  day  of  pure  recrea- 
tion is  a  blessing  which  will  brighten  many 
monotonous  days  on  the  farm.  Why  should 
not  the  faithful  and  industrious  people  of  the 
farmhouse  take  periodic  outings  to  attend 
great  gatherings,  to  spend  a  day  at  the  state 
or  county  fair,  to  see  the  best  show,  to  witness 
good  moving  picture  plays,  and  to  hear  the 
best  music?  The  fact  that  there  are  so  many 
low  and  degrading  amusements  does  not  prove 
that  all  amusements  are  bad.  There  are 
enough  good  ones  that  are  instructive,  uplift- 
ing and  ennobling.  It  makes  life  richer  and 
better  to  see,  hear  and  engage  in  them.  Fewer 
of  the  best  young  people  would  forsake  the 
farm  if  the  monotony  were  thus  periodically 


SOCIAL.  CONDITIONS  IN  THE  COUNTRY  47 

broken  up.  It  would  also  enrich  the  social  life. 
It  would  furnish  new  view-points  and  outlooks 
for  life.  It  would  furnish  food  for  thought  and 
conversation.  The  social  life  on  the  farm  need 
not  be  monotonous.  It  ought  not  to  be  a  per- 
petual drudgery.  It  can  be  made  the  brightest 
and  happiest  life  in  the  world. 

The  modern  improvements,  the  rural  daily- 
mail,  the  telephone,  the  trolley  car  and  the 
automobile  are  all  aids  in  these  directions.  All 
have  their  temptations,  all  can  be  abused.  The 
mail  can  be  used  and  is  used  to  bring  trashy, 
dangerous  papers.  The  telephone  may  be  used 
for  eavesdropping  and  hurtful  gossip.  The 
auto  may  take  people  away  from  church  to 
dangerous  and  bad  places. 

The  country  needs  to  train  stronger  moral 
characters  than  were  needed  in  the  good  old 
times.  The  more  diversified  life  becomes  the 
more  do  temptations  multiply.  The  more  these 
temptations  are  resisted  and  overcome  the 
stronger  does  the  moral  character  grow. 

The  modern  conveniences  can  and  ought  to 
be  used  for  the  improvement  of  the  social  life. 
There  ought  to  be  more  friendly  visiting,  more 
heartening  and  helpful  neighboring.  There 
ought  to  be  more  cooperating  in  every  way. 
For  all  this  the  modern  conveniences  furnish 
opportunities  that  our  forbears  did  not  have. 

Of  the  relation  of  the  school  and  church  to 
the  social  life  we  shall  speak  further  on. 


CHAPTER  SIX. 

THE    EDUCATIONAIi    CONDITIONS    IN    THE    COUNTRY. 

'*  'Tis  education  moulds  the  human  mind 

Just  as  the  twig  is  bent  the  tree 's  inclined. '  * 

The  earliest  school  is  the  home.  The  first 
teacher  is  the  mother. 

What  Napoleon  said  of  France  is  true  of 
every  land:  ^^The  greatest  need  of  France  is 
mothers.'^    This  is  eminently  true  of  America. 

In  the  ideal  home,  described  in  the  former 
chapter,  the  children  will  be  properly  trained 
and  educated  from  infancy.  The  preparatory 
work  of  the  home  will  make  it  easy  for  the 
teacher  of  the  public  school. 

The  country  school  depends  on  the  school 
trustees  or  the  school  board  of  the  district.  Dis- 
trict supervision  and  control  is  a  serious  weak- 
ness and  handicap.  Horace  Mann  declared  the 
law  which  established  the  district  system  **the 
most  unfortunate  law  on  the  subject  of  common 
schools  ever  enacted." 

The  average  farmer  is  the  traditional  enemy 
of  the  tax  collector.  As  of  old  the  publican  is 
hated  in  the  country.     Publicans  and  sinners 

48 


EDUCATIONAL  CONDITIONS  IN  THE  COUNTRY       49 

are  still  classed  together.  Stingy  and  ignorant 
people  look  upon  taxation  as  robbery.  Their 
one  great  desire  and  effort  on  the  subject  is 
to  reduce  and  as  far  as  possible  to  escape  taxa- 
tion. There  can  be  no  public  school  without  a 
public  school  tax.*  The  efficiency  of  the  school 
is  largely  dependent  upon  the  liberality  of 
the  tax. 

The  farmer  gets  his  money  slowly  and  by 
hard  labor.  He  parts  with  it  reluctantly. 
*^ Lower  taxes''  is  a  familiar  country  cry.  A 
school  district  in  selecting  its  trustees  or  di- 
rectors will  too  often  look  for  men  who  will 
scale  down  the  tax  rate.  And  so  the  least  pro- 
gressive and  the  stingiest  men  often  get  the 
management  of  the  school.  Such  miserly  men, 
short-sighted  as  to  what  is  the  highest  secular 
good,  blinded  by  the  love  of  money  and  utterly 
unable  to  appreciate  the  value  and  importance 
of  a  broad  and  thorough  education,  will  favor 
the  cheapest  building  and  equipment.  Adapta- 
tion, comfort  for  teacher,  pupil  and  the  public, 
beauty  and  modern  equipment  will  be  sacrificed 
to  cheapness.  The  cheapest  teacher  will  be 
sought  for  and  selected.  The  shortest  term  al- 
lowable will  be  favored.  And  so  the  poor  chil- 
dren and  the  poorer  teacher  are  at  the  mercy  of 
the  ignorant,  narrow,  hard-fisted  trustee  or  di- 
rector. Small  wonder  then  that  the  country 
school  is  so  often  a  disgrace  to  twentieth  cen- 


50         LUTHERAN  CHURCH  IN   THE  COUNTRY 

tury  American  civilization.  No  wonder  that 
the  school  is  so  poorly  adapted  for  the  uplift 
and  enriching  of  country  life. 

With  the  shabby,  untidy  and  unsanitary 
buildings  and  grounds,  without  good  black- 
boards, maps,  charts  and  pictures,  innocent  of 
free  stationery,  using  the  cheapest  and  most 
antiquated  text-books,  unhygienic  as  to  light 
and  ventilation,  uncomfortable  and  unattrac- 
tive in  every  aspect,  what  can  be  expected  from 
such  untoward  equipment?  With  teachers  of 
meagre  and  defective  training,  with  a  motley 
multitude  of  all  grades  to  be  taught  in  one 
such  ill-adapted  room  by  one  teacher,  with  a 
school  year  all  to  short  for  efficient  work,  what 
can  be  expected  in  the  way  of  elevating  the 
rising  generation?  Such  unhappy  situations 
are  by  no  means  universal  in  the  country.  But 
they  are  far  more  common  than  most  of  us 
imagine.  We  are  glad  that  they  are  being 
frowned  upon  more  and  more  and  that  there  is 
an  insistent  demand  for  betterment. 

What  the  country  at  large  needs  is  to  get  the 
power  of  administration  out  of  the  hands  of 
the  unfit  district  directors.  These  directors 
need  to  be  restricted  and  directed  from  above. 
We  cannot  have  enthusiasm,  efficiency  and  a 
proper  school  spirit  under  conditions  that  are 
a  disgrace  and  ought  to  be  outlawed.  Districts 
need  to  be  regulated  by  townships,  these  should 


EDUCATIONAL  CONDITIONS  IN  THE  COUNTRY        51 

be  subject  to  the  county  and  this  again  to  state 
control.  We  look  forward  indeed  to  ultimate 
national  standards,  and  national  regulation. 
Compulsory  school  laws  must  also  become 
national.  The  compulsion  must  come  from 
above. 

We  rejoice  in  the  spread  and  growth  of  the 
central  district  high  school.  These  consoli- 
dated schools,  with  free  transportation  of 
pupils  in  comfortable,  covered  conveyances  are 
a  great  boon  to  the  country.  They  compel  the 
building  of  good  school  houses  and  they  compel 
good  roads.  With  the  popularity  of  the  auto- 
mobile in  the  country  will  come  further  con- 
venience and  comfort.  These  schools  bring  the 
youth  of  the  larger  district  together.  They  put 
an  end  to  the  ignorant,  narrow  and  hurtful 
provincialism.  They  are  powerful  aids  in 
fostering  a  healthful  community  spirit.  They 
ought  to  make  the  old  time  spirit  of  suspicion, 
bitterness  and  feud,  bred  by  isolation,  a  thing 
of  the  past.  They  tend  to  embellish  and  enrich 
the  life  in  the  country  in  every  way.  It  goes 
without  saying  that  everything  depends  upon 
the  professional  efficiency  and  moral  and  re- 
ligious character  of  the  teachers.  No  unbeliev- 
ing, scoffing  teacher  ought  ever  to  be  allowed 
to  teach  in  the  public  school.  If  the  teacher  of 
the  public  school,  as  an  employe  of  the  state, 
cannot  be  allowed  to  teach  religion,  he  certainly 


52  LUTHEBAN   CHUKCH   IN   THE   COUNTBY 

should  never  be  allowed  to  teach  or  to  voice 
hostility  to  the  Bible  and  its  religion.* 

The  moral  character  of  the  drivers  who  haul 
the  pupils  back  and  forth  needs  also  to  be  care- 
fully watched.  No  man  of  profane  or  unclean 
lip  or  life,  no  man  of  intemperate  habits  should 
ever  be  employed.  The  crowded,  covered 
wagon  may  become  a  breeding  place  of  im- 
purity. And  here  we  might  note  in  passing 
that  vice  and  impurity  often  become  epidemic 
in  a  country  district.  The  writer  of  this  has 
personally  known  of  several  country  schools 
where  impurity  became  so  common  that  it  was 
common  rumor  that  all  the  pupils  were  impure. 

Another  matter  that  deserves  serious  atten- 
tion is  that  the  country  should  educate  for 
country  life.  Too  often  the  teacher  and  the 
text-book  bring  and  keep  the  ideas  and  ideals 
of  the  city  before  the  pupils.  The  city  with 
its  attractions,  its  ways  and  its  life,  is  con- 
stantly kept  in  view.  The  stories,  the  illustra- 
tions, the  examples  in  Mathematics  are  all  given 
in  the  terms  of  the  city.  They  echo  the  city's 
surging  life.  They  drum  into  the  children 
stocks  and  bonds  and  commerce,  instead  of 
dealing  with  soil  and  silo,  dairy  and  live  stock. 

The  teachers  bring  to  the  country  the  man- 
ners and  fashions  and  styles  of  the  city.    They 

*  For  a  fuller  discussion  of  this  subject  see  my  "Prob- 
lems and  Possibilities,"  pp.  110-114. 


EDUCATIONAL  CONDITIONS  IN  THE  COUNTRY        53 

are  in  the  country  against  their  will.  The 
country  school  is  to  be  a  stepping  stone  to  the 
city  school.  Their  talk  is  patronizing  if  not 
belittling  toward  those  who  must  spend  their 
life  in  the  lonely  and  dreary  country.  Enam- 
ored of  city  life  they  reflect  its  attractions  and 
its  lure.  The  power  of  suggestion  works  easily 
and  surely.  The  city  and  city  life  is  thought 
about,  talked  about,  dreamed  about.  The 
desire  and  aim  to  get  away  from  country  dull- 
ness and  drudgery  to  city  interest,  excitement 
and  an  easier  life  take  full  possession.  And 
so  the  country  school  trains  the  young  away 
from  the  soil.  The  country  school  becomes  an 
agency  to  stimulate  the  away  from  the  land 
movement.  The  country  school  tends  to  de- 
populate the  country. 

Country  people  want  their  children  to  like 
the  country  life.  They  have  a  right  to  expect 
the  school  to  promote  this  country  love.  It 
will  never  be  promoted  by  teachers  who  have 
the  city  fever.  The  country  school  needs  to  be 
made  so  attractive  and  so  remunerative  that  it 
will  draw  the  best  of  teachers.  These  ought  to 
be  native  to  the  soil,  to  the  manner  born. .  They 
ought  to  understand  and  appreciate  the  best 
that  is  and  ought  to  be  in  the  country  life. 
They  need  to  have  a  vision  of  the  possibilities 
of  life  on  the  land,  a  vision  of  their  own  high 
privilege  of  bringing  this  to  pass. 


54  LUTHERAN   CHUBCH   IN   THE  COUNTRY 

Normal  schools  are  needed  that  will  train 
country-bred  boys  and  girls  to  become  country 
teachers.  Such  normals  should  promote  rural 
interests  and  rural  ideals,  country  sense  and 
country  sympathy.  Their  graduates  ought  to 
be  in  sympathy  with  and  ought  to  know  the 
ideals  and  theories  of  *'The  American  Rural 
School,''  by  H.  W.  Foght.  They  ought  to  know 
the  writings  of  0.  J.  Kern  and  of  Mabel  Carney. 
They  ought  to  know  the  science  of  agriculture. 
The  good  rural  Normal  will  work  hand  in  hand 
with  the  agricultural  college  and  experiment 
station.  Its  graduates  will  become  enthusiastic 
for  making  country  life  what  it  ought  to  be  and 
what  it  can  be. 

In  their  schools  good  teachers  will  instil  love 
for  the  country  and  country  life.  Their  talk 
will  be  of  flowers  and  plants  and  trees  and  birds 
and  animals  and  pets  and  live  stock.  They  will 
teach  the  chemistry  of  soils,  and  scientific  pre- 
paration and  culture  of  the  soil,  scientific  fer- 
tilizing, scientific  matching  of  seed  and  soil. 
They  will  teach  the  biology  and  botany  of  seeds 
and  plants,  the  soils  and  fertilizers  and  culture 
they  need.  They  will  teach  the  zoology  of  farm 
animals,  their  rearing  and  their  care.  They 
will  teach  the  architecture  of  the  farm  house 
and  other  farm  buildings,  the  home  conveni- 
ences and  furnishings  needed  and  how  to  use 
them.    Domestic  science  will  have  a  large  place 


EDUCATIONAL  CONDITIONS  IN  THE  COUNTRY       65 

in  their  teaching.  The  laws  of  hygiene  will 
be  made  clear  and  driven  home.  Landscaping 
and  the  beautifying  of  the  home  on  the  inside 
and  on  the  outside  will  be  explained  and  im- 
pressed. 

Such  teachers  will  be  a  great  aid  toward  im- 
proving the  economic  situation  in  the  country. 
They  will  gradually  improve  the  rural  social 
mind.  They  will  aid  greatly  in  enriching  the 
social  life  of  the  community. 

They  will  encourage  the  making  of  the  school 
house  an  intellectual  and  social  centre.  They 
will  encourage  extension  lectures  from  the 
state  university,  the  agricultural  college  and 
the  experiment  station.  They  will  encourage 
farmers,  breeders  and  poultry  men  to  take 
short  winter  courses  in  agricultural  colleges. 
They  will  constantly  preach  and  impress  the 
value  of  higher  education.  They  will  use  every 
endeavor  to  show  the  farmer  fathers  that  a 
liberal  education  is  the  best  legacy  they  can 
leave  to  their  sons  and  daughters.  From  their 
school-districts  many  boys  and  girls  will  go  to 
college  and  university.  Doctors,  lawyers,  pro- 
fessors and  preachers  will  spring  forth  from 
their  communities,  all  inspired  and  started  by 
their  teachers  in  the  country  schools. 

Next  to  the  minister  of  the  Gospel,  the 
church-school  teacher,  the  deaconess  and  the 
Christian    social    service    and    inner    mission 


56  LUTHEEAISr   CHUECH  IN   THE  COUNTKY 

worker,  the  country  school  teacher  has  the 
richest  and  most  promising  field  for  the  service 
and  uplift  of  humanity. 

Over  one-half  of  the  people  of  the  United 
States  still  live  in  the  country.  The  purest, 
the  best,  the  richest  red  blood  is  still  there. 
The  bulk  of  the  best  brains  is  still  there.  And 
the  best  moral  fibre  is  still  there.  A  few  years 
ago  ^ve  hundred  leading  business  and  profes- 
sional men  sat  down  to  a  Y.  M.  C.  A.  banquet 
in  New  York.  A  census  was  taken  during  the 
evening  and  it  was  discovered  that  nine  out  of 
ten  of  the  men  of  affairs  and  of  power  in  the  city 
were  born  and  bred  in  the  open  country  or  in 
the  country  town.  A  canvass  of  one  hundred 
men  in  a  great  city  showed  that  eighty-five  of 
these  bankers,  lawyers,  merchants  and  journal- 
ists were  brought  up  in  the  country.  City 
pastors  testify  again  and  again  that  their  most 
dependable  members  were  brought  up  in  coun- 
try churches.  It  is  claimed  by  those  who  have 
studied  the  subject  that  *^at  least  seventy-five 
per  cent,  of  the  men  and  women  of  influence 
in  church  and  national  life  were  born  and 
reared  in  the  country.''  *^ Country  bred  men 
have  dominated  our  entire  civilization.''  John 
B.  Mott  says,  *^The  cities  cannot  be  relied  upon 
to  furnish  the  Christian  leaders  of  the  future. 
The  work  in  the  country  districts  must  be 
carried  on  with  efficiency  and  power  in  order 


EDUCATIONAL  CONDITIONS  IN  THE  COUNTKY        57 

to  insure  tlie  raising  np  of  sufficient  Christian 
forces  to  cultivate  the  city  fields. '^  Doctor 
Gunsaulus  claims  that  Chicago  *s  twelve  great- 
est preachers,  eighty-six  of  its  leading  physi- 
cians, eighty-one  of  its  greatest  lawyers,  and 
seventy-three  of  its  one  hundred  best  engineers, 
all  came  from  the  farm.  It  is  a  well-known 
fact  that  a  large  proportion  of  ministers  were 
country  boys. 

What  a  field  for  the  country  school-teacher. 
What  a  field  for  the  country  pastor. 


CHAPTER  SEVEN. 

EEUGIOUS   CONDITIONS   IN    THE   COUNTRY. 

We  have  seen  that  the  rural  mind  is  inclined 
to  be  meditative,  serious,  religious.  The  coun- 
try man  should  naturally  draw  toward  the 
church.  The  church  that  has  a  message  should 
appeal  to  him  strongly.  It  should  be  full  of 
men. 

In  the  recollection  of  those  now  living  such 
was  largely  the  case.  Nearly  everybody  in  the 
community  was  a  church-goer  if  not  a  church 
member.  In  New  England  the  ringing  of  the 
bells  of  the  plain,  square,  roomy  meeting 
houses  emptied  the  farm  homes  for  many 
miles  in  every  direction.  The  roads  were 
crowded  with  great  wagon  loads  of  people  of 
every  age.  Others  came  on  horseback  and 
many  walked  their  weary  miles  on  dusty  or 
muddy  highways.  The  ample  church-grounds, 
with  their  long  rows  of  sheds,  presented  an  ani- 
mated and  an  edifying  sight.  The  quiet  happi- 
ness and  peace  on  the  faces  of  the  gathering  or 
departing  worshippers  all  seemed  to  say,  ^'I 
was  glad  when  they  said  unto  me  Let  us  go  into 
the  House  of  the  Lord.    Our  feet  shall  stand 

58 


EELIGIOUS  CONDITIONS  IN  THE  COUNTRY        59 

within  thy  gates  0  Jerusalem."  **A  day  in 
thy  courts  is  better  than  a  thousand.''  **I 
would  rather  be  a  door-keeper  in  the  house  of 
the  Lord  than  to  dwell  in  the  tents  of  wicked- 
ness.'' 

The  Puritans  of  New  England  for  several 
generations  were  great  church-goers.  The 
Scotch-Irish  set  great  store  by  the  church  and 
the  Bible.  Their  country  settlements  were 
characterized  by  strong  churches,  deep  devo- 
tion, and  sturdy  defense  of  their  religion.  The 
Presbyterian  church  from  the  beginning  was 
strong  in  the  country.  The  Methodists,  while 
not  neglecting  the  country,  were  more  like  the 
Roman  Catholics  and  Episcopalians  in  their 
early  and  constant  appreciation  of  the  city  and 
the  growing  town.  It  is  hard  to  find  a  town  of 
any  size,  outside  of  those  that  are  populated  by 
foreigners,  in  which  there  is  not  an  aggressive 
Methodist  church.  In  all  the  largest  cities  they 
are  strong.  They  are  not  a  strong  church  in 
the  open  country.  The  Baptists  in  this  respect 
are  like  unto  the  Methodists,  except  that  they 
have  a  greater  tendency  to  colonize  in  the 
country.  Of  the  Lutherans  we  shall  speak 
more  specifically  later  on.  Suffice  it  to  say 
here  that  they  are  on  the  whole  the  most  rural 
of  all  Protestant  churches  and  are  maintaining 
their  strength  and  growth  in  the  country  better 
than  any  other  church.    In  this  chapter  we  are 


60  LUTHERAN   CHURCH   IN   THE  COUNTRY 

looking  into  the  general  situation  as  it  exists 
in  the  open  country  and  in  the  country  town. 

Outside  of  the  Lutheran  settlements  the  sit- 
uation is  positively  alarming.  A  sad  change 
has  come  over  the  country  churches  of  our  land. 
In  the  better  olden  times  in  the  country  the 
man  that  did  not  go  to  church  was  looked  down 
upon  and  was  made  to  feel  that  his  attitude  to 
the  church  brought  upon  him  more  or  less  of 
public  odium.  He  was  more  or  less  ostracised, 
and  either  had  to  flock  by  himself  or  be  con- 
stantly on  the  defensive. 

It  is  not  so  now.  In  many  sections  the  ease 
is  reversed.  The  pendulum  has  swung  to  the 
other  extreme.  A  startling  change  has  come. 
The  situation  is  serious.  A  blighting  heathen- 
ism is  spreading  over  our  land.  It  is  high  time 
that  American  Christians  look  the  facts  in  the 
face.  And  facts  are  still  stubborn  things.  Soft 
and  smooth  sayings  cannot  blot  out  facts.  A 
visionary  optimism  will  not  change  things. 
There  is  a  horrid  hurt  on  our  Christian  civili- 
zation. It  cannot  be  healed  with  salves  and 
ointments.  There  must  be  first  of  all  a  rigid 
and  unsparing  diagnosis.  Surgery  and  cauter- 
izing and  purging  are  needed. 

For  the  diagnosing  of  the  case  the  Presby- 
terian Church  has  rendered  an  invaluable  ser- 
vice to  American  Christianity.  She  has  commis- 
sioned a  number  of  experts  to  make  religious 


KELIGIOUS  CONDITIONS  IN  THE  COUNTRY        61 

rural  life  surveys.  These  surveys  were  made 
by  trained  specialists.  They  have  cost  much 
time,  labor  and  money.  They  set  forth  the 
present  religious  situation  in  representative 
sections  in  different  parts  of  the  land.  Their 
disclosures  are  accurate,  instructive  and  start- 
ling. We  have  examined  a  goodly  number  of 
them.  We  are  indebted  to  them  and  to  books 
that  deal  with  the  country  church  and  that 
draw  from  these  surveys  for  our  facts. 

We  look  first  to  old  New  England,  in  many 
respects  the  cradle  of  our  free  institutions  and 
of  American  church  life.  In  the  year  1900  the 
Governor  of  New  Hampshire  issued  a  procla- 
mation which  set  forth  the  religious  destitution 
in  certain  New  England  communities  and  sum- 
moned the  people  to  observe  a  day  of  fasting 
and  prayer.  When  the  governor  was  widely 
criticized  for  his  *^ pessimistic"  proclamation 
Bollin  Lynde  Hartt  published  a  series  of  arti- 
cles in  the  Outlook  in  which  he  established  and 
justified  the  contentions  of  the  governor.  He 
stated  that  there  were  two  hundred  and  eighty- 
two  pastorless  churches  in  Maine  at  that  time, 
and  that  some  of  the  deserted  churches  were 
serving  as  cheese  factories,  road-houses  and 
dance-halls.  Ashenhurst,  who  gives  us  these 
facts,  says:  ''The  extreme  examples  of  re- 
ligious destitution  indicate  a  tendency  and  a 
peril.    Practically  the  same  conditions  are  said 


62  LUTHERAN   CHURCH  IN   THE  COUNTRY 

to  exist  in  Vermont  and  in  large  sections  of 
rural  New  York.  In  1910  a  New  England 
church  association  investigated  the  general 
situation.  The  report  affirms  that  outside  of  a 
radius  of  two  or  three  miles  around  the  towns 
of  New  England  a  practical  heathenism  is  in 
full  sway.  One  lone  minister,  the  pastor  of  the 
only  Protestant  church  for  many  miles  around 
had  a  little  band  of  women  and  two  men  in  his 
church.  Our  periodic  literature  in  recent 
years  has  teemed  with  delineations  and  lamen- 
tations on  the  sad  situation  of  the  church  in 
New  England.  New  England  can  be  saved 
from  heathenizing  by  nothing  else  than  the  old 
Gospel  of  Christ.  We  are  glad  to  know  that 
the  old  Church  of  the  Eeformation,  with  the 
old  faith  that  made  the  Eeformation,  is  crowd- 
ing into  the  farm  homes  and  cities  of  New 
England.  Thousands  of  soul-hungry,  blue 
blood  Yankees  will  yet  find  satisfaction,  salva- 
tion and  service  in  the  incoming  English  Lu- 
theran Churches. 

Turning  now  to  the  Middle  West  we  look 
first  at  the  pivotal  state  of  Ohio.  Here  New 
England  Congregationalism  made  its  second 
stand,  modified  and  tried  to  readapt  its  theology 
and  started  out  anew  for  the  winning  of  the 
West.  Here  English  Lutheranism  made  such 
a  promising  start  under  the  sainted  Dr.  Green- 
wald  and  later  by  Dr.   Ezra  Keller.     Here 


RELIGIOUS  CONDITIONS  IN  THE  COUNTEY        63 

Scotch-Irish  Presbyterianism  planted  its  early- 
colonies  and  institutions  of  Learning.  Here  the 
country  church  was  strong  and  big  with  pro- 
mise. And  what  is  the  country  condition  today! 
In  a  religious  survey  of  nineteen  counties 
out  of  fifteen  hundred  and  fifteen  churches  it 
was  ascertained  that  one-third  were  increasing. 
Of  the  other  two-thirds  a  comparatively  small 
number  were  holding  their  own.  The  rest  were 
dwindling  in  numbers  and  influence.  In  a  dis- 
trict of  one  hundred  square  miles,  by  actual 
count,  less  than  four  per  cent,  of  the  people 
were  communicant  members  of  any  church. 
Eight  hundred  abandoned  churches  were 
counted.  The  author  of ' '  The  Survey  Bulletin ' ' 
writes:  **0f  all  these  one  thousand  five  hun- 
dred and  fifteen  churches  at  the  present  time 
slightly  less  than  one-third  are  growing.  The 
remaining  two-thirds  have  either  ceased  to 
grow  or  are  dying.  The  decline  of  the  farmers* 
church  is  the  most  striking  fact  to  be  recorded. 
Those  churches  upon  which  the  farming  popu- 
lation is  dependent  show  no  rapid  changes  and 
the  most  marked  signs  of  decadence.  Of  the 
open  country  church  not  quite  one-fourth  are 
growing.  The  study  of  county  after  county 
compels  the  conclusion  that  where  other  things 
are  equal,  the  larger  the  proportion  of  farmers 
in  the  membership  of  the  church,  the  smaller 
chance  does  the  church  have  to  maintain  itself 


64  LUTHERAN   CHURCH   IN   THE  COUNTRY 

with  its  strength  unimpaired.  The  farmer  to- 
day is  our  most  difficult  church  problem. ' ' 

In  Indiana  conditions  are  if  anything  worse. 
Indiana  has  been  called  ^  ^  the  state  of  sects  and 
insects.''  Here  the  most  extreme,  most  radical 
and  most  ignorant  revivalist,  immersionist  and 
sanctificationist  sects  multiply  and  carry  on 
their  wild  and  irrational  propaganda.  They 
leave  whole  sections  of  burnt  districts  in  their 
trail.  In  these  burnt-over  sections  ignorant 
unbelief  as  well  as  coarse  and  unblushing  vice 
often  abound. 

Harlan  N.  Freeman  in  *Hhe  Kingdom  and 
the  Farm,''  page  77,  says:  *^The  Presby- 
terian Survey  in  Indiana  discovered  in  Mar- 
shall County  that  of  the  ninety-one  churches, 
thirty-seven  per  cent,  were  growing,  twenty 
per  cent,  were  standing  still,  while  forty-two 
per  cent,  were  losing  ground.  The  same  condi- 
tions of  decline,  with  variations,  were  found  in 
Davies  and  Boone  Counties." 

A  recent  issue  of  *^The  Standard,"  the  organ 
of  the  Disciples  (Campbellites),  devoted  twelve 
pages  to  a  discussion  of  their  country  church 
problem.  Out  of  seven  hundred  and  ninety-six 
churches  in  Indiana,  one  hundred  and  ninety- 
eight  had  preaching  once  a  month,  two  hundred 
and  twenty-five  have  no  regular  preaching,  and 
thirty-five  are  abandoned.  In  one  district  there 
are  thirty-six  churches  and  only  six  pastors. 


RELIGIOUS  CONDITIONS  IN  THE  COUNTRY        65 

In  another  forty-one  clmrclies  and  seven  pas- 
tors. And  Indiana  is  the  banner  state  of  the 
Campbellites ! 

The  Presbyterian  synod  of  Michigan  recently 
reported  one-third  of  all  its  churches  vacant. 
The  Baptists  of  the  same  state  reported  a  great 
falling  off,  a  loss  of  one  thousand  members. 

In  the  state  of  Illinois  there  are  forty  towns 
of  from  two  to  eight  hundred  inhabitants  that 
are  without  a  church  of  any  kind.  In  the  whole 
state  seventeen  hundred  churches  have  been 
abandoned  in  a  few  years.  A  survey  of  forty- 
four  communities  in  the  corn  belt  of  the  state 
where 

''King  Corn's  armies  lie  with  flags  unfurled," 

two  hundred  and  twenty-five  churches  were 
examined.  Of  these  seventy-seven  had  grown 
in  the  last  ten  years,  fifty-six  had  lost  in 
membership  and  forty-seven  or  nearly  one- 
fourth  had  been  abandoned.  In  this  district 
the  summing  up  of  the  situation  shows  that  one- 
third  of  the  churches,  counting  both  town  and 
country,  are  growing,  and  two-thirds  are  dying 
or  dead. 

In  Missouri  a  survey  of  three  counties  showed 
more  than  half  of  the  churches  losing  in  mem- 
bership. Twenty-one  churches  were  found 
abandoned.    In  a  single  township  of  five  thous- 


66  LUTHERAN   CHURCH  IN   THE  COUNTRY 

and  inhabitants  only  three  hundred  people  are 
connected  with  any  church.  In  the  whole  state 
seven  hundred  and  fifty  churches  have  been 
abandoned. 

The  above  are  typical  examples  from  the 
better  part  of  the  nation.  Outside  of  the  sec- 
tions where  the  German  Lutheran  and  Scandi- 
navian settlers  abound,  the  situation  becomes 
worse  and  worse  the  farther  west  we  go.  It 
has  often  been  said  that  west  of  Iowa  and 
Minnesota  there  is  no  Sunday  and  west  of  the 
Dakotas  there  is  no  God!  Sixty  per  cent,  of 
the  people  of  America  are  rapidly  heathenizing. 

In  an  address  made  before  the  Connecticut 
Bible  Society  the  Rev.  H.  L.  Hutchins,  who  had 
spent  many  years  as  a  colporteur  in  the  rural 
sections  of  that  state  said,  in  substance,  of  the 
districts  where  the  churches  were  dying  or 
dead:  ^^The  whole  aspect  of  those  communi- 
ties is  disheartening.  The  people  are  ignorant 
and  have  no  ambition  to  be  anything  else. 
Vices  increase  and  become  more  and  more  open 
and  flagrant.  Immorality  is  unashamed.  There 
is  an  open  contempt  and  disregard  of  marriage, 
an  alarming  growth  of  idiocy,  the  result  of  in- 
breeding and  incest.  Cheap  whiskey  is  omni- 
present, violence  and  crime  more  and  more  fre- 
quent. There  is  an  inevitable  lapsing  toward 
paganism  and  barbarism.'' 

Such  is  the  country  where  God  is  not.    There 


RELIGIOUS  CONDITIONS  IN  THE  COUNTRY        67 

are  hundreds  of  localities  like  that.  We  know 
some  of  them.  Does  not  the  reader  recall  some 
such  places  !  There  Christ  is  not  wanted.  The 
voice  of  His  Bride,  the  Church,  is  not  heard. 


fart  ^^m 

(Saiwrfl  of  Qlauntrg  (Honltttiiitm 


Because  thou  art  lukewarm  and  neither  cold 
nor  hot  I  will  spew  thee  out  of.  my^  mouth. — 

Jesus, 

There  is  less  practical  discouragement  in  the 
opposition  of  bad  people  than  in  the  inertia  of 
good  people. — Dr,  Boyd. 

For  my  people  have  committed  two  evils: 
They  have  forsaken  me,  the  fountain  of  living 
waters,  and  hewn  themselves  out  cisterns, 
broken  cisterns  that  can  hold  no  water. — Jere- 
miah, 

Because  when  they  knew  God  they  glorified 
Him  not  as  God,  neither  were  thankful;  but 
became  vain  in  their  reasonings  and  their 
senseless  heart  was  darkened.  Professing 
themselves  to  be  wise  they  became  fools. — Paul. 

And  we  know  that  we  are  of  God  and  the 

whole  world  lieth  in  the  evil  one Little 

children  keep  yourselves  from  idols. — John. 


CHAPTER  EIGHT. 

CAUSES  OF   CHURCH  DECLINE. 

That  the  decline  of  the  country  church  is 
widespread  and  alarming  can  no  longer  be 
denied.  Our  Lutheran  Church  is  as  yet  the 
least  affected.  Of  this  we  shall  speak  more 
fully  in  subsequent  chapters.  We  are  devoutly 
thankful  for  the  fact.  But  our  country  people 
and  pastors  are  of  the  same  sinful  stock  as 
others.  They  are  influenced,  even  as  others, 
by  condition  and  environment.  They  are  sub- 
ject to  country  temptations  as  are  their  neigh- 
bors. What  has  happened  to  others  ought  to 
be  a  warning  to  us.  We  Lutherans  ought  to 
know  our  dangers.  We  cannot  effectually 
guard  ourselves  against  them  unless  we  know 
them.  It  behooves  us  to  inquire  and  search 
diligently  for  the  causes  of  country  church 
decline. 

It  will  not  do  to  brush  aside  the  subject  by 
saying  that  it  is  enough  to  know  and  admit  the 
sinfulness  of  human  nature.  It  is  true  that  the 
carnal  mind  is  enmity  against  God  and  that 
men  love  darkness  rather  than  light.  The  coun- 
try heart  is  as  sinful  by  nature  as  is  the  city 
"71 


72  LUTHERAN  CHURCH  IN   THE  COUNTRY 

heart.  But  this  fundamental  fact  does  not  ex- 
plain the  threatening  change  that  is  going  on  in 
the  religous  life  of  the  country.  People  had  the 
same  sinful  nature  in  the  better  days  when  the 
country  churches  were  full  of  devout  worship- 
pers. There  are  things  that  encourage  sinful 
nature  and  promote  its  development.  There 
are  things  that  discourage  and  curb  the  growth 
of  sin. 

The  economic  situation  of  the  country  un- 
doubtedly affects  the  church.  Where  there  is 
thin  naturally  unproductive  soil  and  slip-shod 
unscientific  farming  together  with  improvident 
management,  the  community  is  poor,  discour- 
aged and  depressed.  People  brood  over  their 
poverty,  become  fretful  and  rebellious  and  are 
hard  to  interest  in  higher  things.  It  is  a  short 
step  from  rebellion  against  God  to  rebellion 
against  the  church.  When  such  apathetic  and 
phlegmatic  people  are  invited  to  church  they 
frame  all  sorts  of  excuses.  They  have  no  time, 
no  clothes,  no  conveyances.  The  true  reason  is 
they  are  bitter  and  don't  want  to  go. 

Absentee  landlordism  is  a  misfortune  to  a 
community.  To  be  stable,  to  have  a  neighbor- 
hood interest,  a  social  mind,  a  desire  for  public 
improvement  and  common  weal,  a  community 
needs  permanent  homes  and  residents  who  ex- 
pect to  live  and  die  where  they  are. 

Kenters  are  not  so.    They  are  not  rooted  to 


CAUSES  OF  CHURCH  DECLINE  73 

the  soil.  Their  dwellings  are  not  their  real 
homes.  They  are  ready  to  move  whenever  they 
think  they  can  make  a  better  bargain.  They 
have  little  if  any  interest  in  the  community.  It 
is  hard  to  interest  them  in  the  church.  A  com- 
munity of  renters  is  a  hard  place  for  a  country 
church.  The  increase  of  tenant  farming  is  a 
contributing  cause  to  the  decline  of  the  country 
church. 

Ignorant  and  unscientific  farming  makes  the 
soil  poor,  whether  the  farmer  be  owner  or 
tenant.  Such  farming  makes  a  community  poor 
and  is  a  serious  drawback  to  the  church.  In 
short,  whatever  tends  to  make  life  hard  and  un- 
productive is  a  drawback.  Overwork  is  a  draw- 
back. Lack  of  material  comfort  brings  un- 
happiness.  An  unhappy  heart  or  home  or  com- 
munity is  a  discouraging  field  for  a  church. 

The  psychology  of  the  rural  mind  is  a  church 
problem.  The  individualist  is  hard  to  interest 
in  the  group,  even  if  that  group  is  a  church.  He 
is  apt  to  be  suspicious  of  all  who  do  not  share 
his  views.  He  is  stubbornly  opinionated.  If 
for  any  reason  he  is  suspicious  of  church  people 
or  of  pastor  he  is  hard  to  move.  Living  and 
working  with  nature  day  by  day  he  knows  and 
notes  that  nature  knows  no  mercy.  Nature 
never  forgives.  Possibly  this  is  an  explanation 
of  the  unforgiving  spirit  so  common  in  the 
country.     This  spirit  is  productive  of  faction 


74  LUTHERAN  CHURCH   IN  THE  COUNTRY 

and  feud.  This  spirit  is  a  serious  problem  for 
the  country  church.  It  has  held  back  many  a 
country  church.  It  has  weakened  and  killed 
many. 

The  farmer  and  his  wife  and  children  all  earn 
and  eat  their  bread  in  the  sweat  of  their  brow. 
With  a  large  proportion  of  them  their  money 
comes  slowly  and  with  hard,  long  labor.  A 
natural  tendency  is  to  hold  fast  to  what  he 
toils  for.  The  farmer  as  a  rule  is  less  liberal 
in  giving  than  others.  He  often  becomes  a 
miser.  As  no  church  can  be  kept  up  without 
money  he  suspects  that  the  church  is  after  his 
cash.  He  dreads  the  cost  of  church  member- 
ship and  refuses  to  become  a  member.  If  such 
an  one  is  a  member  he  is  apt  to  oppose  every 
forward  movement  that  requires  money,  and 
all  missionary  effort.  And  so  he  is  a  drawback 
to  the  church. 

It  follows  as  a  matter  of  course  that  when 
people  with  these  or  other  unfavorable  traits 
move  to  the  country  town  they  present  a  church 
problem  there.  A  town  made  up  largely  of 
retired  farmers  is  proverbially  non-progressive. 
It  is  hard  to  make  a  church  aggressive,  pro- 
gressive, and  generally  efficient  in  such  a  town. 
It  has  all  the  drawbacks  presented  by  the  rural 
mind. 

The  social  situation  of  the  country  is  fre- 
quently a  hard,  problem  for  the  church.     The 


CAUSES  OF  CHURCH  DECLINE  75 

daily  toil  and  family  isolation  may  turn  the 
family  into  unsocial  hermits.  When  they  settle 
down  to  this  it  is  hard  to  get  them  to  church. 
On  the  other  hand,  the  monotony  and  drudgery 
may  create  a  wild  desire  for  diversion  and  ex- 
citement. Saturday  night  and  Sunday  bring 
opportunities.  The  country  towns  are  always 
crowded  on  Saturday  afternoon.  The  picture 
shows,  plays,  pool  rooms  and  saloons  reap  their 
harvest  on  Saturday  night.  The  farmers '  Ford 
automobile  furnishes  the  easy  transportatioru 

Sunday  is  the  day  for  visiting  and  courting. 
These  diversions  become  such  a  habit  witK 
many  people  that  it  is  next  to  impossible  to 
get  them  to  church.  They  afford  a  standing 
excuse  for  many  families.  They  must  visit  or 
receive  and  entertain  visitors.  And  so  the 
social  situation  presents  a  problem  and  is  if 
not  a  cause,  at  least  an  explanation  of  the  de- 
cline of  the  country  church. 

We  realize,  however,  that  while  all  these 
country  conditions  make  church  work  difficult 
they  are  not  fundamental.  In  many  cases  they 
can  be  changed  and  overcome.  The  country 
church  can  be  made  to  grow  in  spite  of  these 
drawbacks. 

For  the  real  causes  of  the  decline  we  must 
look  deeper.  We  believe  that  we  shall  find  them 
in  the  school  and  in  the  church  herself. 

A  change  has  come  over  the  world  of  educa- 


76  LUTHERAN   CHURCH   IN   THE  COUNTRY 

tion.  There  is  a  change  in  the  content  and 
spirit  of  the  text  books.  We  take  down  our  old 
readers  and  spellers.  We  recall  the  head  line 
copy  of  the  old  writing  book.  In  the  readers 
many  lessons  were  extracts  from  the  Bible, 
others  were  appreciations  and  eulogies  of  the 
Bible.  Still  others  were  warnings  against  the 
neglect  of  or  encouragements  to  the  use  of  the 
Bible.  Many  were  the  stories,  the  poems  and 
the  ** pieces'^  to  speak,  all  exalting  the  Word 
and  its  teachings.  The  illustrations  in  reader 
and  speller  were  often  Bible  pictures.  The 
''copies''  in  the  copy-books  were  often  sen- 
tences from,  sayings  about,  or  encouragements 
to  learn  and  follow  the  Bible.  Even  the  **  Ex- 
amples'* in  mental  arithmetic  often  dealt  with 
Bible  subjects.  The  *' three  E's"  were  more  or 
less  colored  by  the  Bible.  It  is  not  so  now.  We 
look  in  vain  for  anything  of  the  kind  in  the  text 
book  of  today. 

The  whole  atmosphere  of  the  state  schools  of 
today  is  irreligious,  if  not  anti-religious.* 
Text  books  and  teachers  are  permeated  with 
anti-Christian  sentiments.  The  science  taught 
is  Darwinian  materialism.  The  psychology  is 
prag-matistic.  The  philosophy  is  Hegelian. 
The  sociology  is  Spencerian  agnosticism. 
There  is  no  place  left  for  revelation  or  miracle 

♦See  "Problems  and  Possibilities,"  page  122  ff. 


CAUSES  OF  CHURCH  DECLINE  77 

The  supernatural  is  eliminated.  All  is  pure 
naturalism  and  often  pure  animalism. 

Such  are  the  educational  principles  and  such 
the  spirit  in  the  state  normal  schools  in  which 
the  country  school  teachers  are  trained.  Those 
who  do  not  have  a  clear  and  positive  Christian 
training,  a  well-established  Christian  character 
and  a  scriptural  personal  experience  before 
they  enter  the  normal  are  often  carried  away 
with  the  prevailing  stream  of  unbelief. 

They  come  out  to  the  little  red  school  house 
on  the  hill  to  teach  the  boys  and  girls  of  the 
farmers.  If  the  teacher  is  an  unbeliever  the 
fact  will  be  more  or  less  apparent.  It  may  not 
express  itself  in  open  opposition  to  church  and 
Bible.  But  the  teacher  creates  an  atmosphere. 
The  personality  speaks.  Unconscious  insinua- 
tions creep  into  explanation  and  conversation. 
At  best  the  pupils  see  that  the  teacher  pays 
neither  attention  nor  respect  to  the  church. 
The  teacher  advises  the  next  higher  school. 
The  teacher's  advice  generally  goes.  He  se- 
lects a  school  library,  advises  what  books  should 
be  read,  becomes  a  social  adviser  and  leader. 
The  influence  is  all  against  the  church.  The 
seeds  of  indifference  to  the  church  and  of  gen- 
eral unbelief  and  worldliness  are  implanted  in 
the  school.  The  same  sentiments  and  the  same 
spirit  are  infused  into  the  social  mind  of  the 
youth  in  the  community.    And  the  church  finds 


73  LUTHERAN   CHURCH   IN   THE  COUNTRY 


herself  in  an  unfriendly  if  not  a  hostile  at- 
mosphere. Here  is  a  direct  and  potent  cause 
of  the  decline  of  the  country  church. 


CHAPTER  NINE. 

CAUSES  OF  CHURCH   DECLINE    {ContlnUCd). 

Judgment  must  always  begin  in  the  house  of 
God.  The  church  needs  most  of  all  to  examine 
herself.  In  how  far  may  the  causes  of  church 
decline  lie  at  her  own  door?  Shall  we  not  look 
here  for  the  fundamental  cause  ? 

We  are  not  yet  speaking  of  specifically  Lu- 
theran conditions  and  causes.  To  these  we 
shall  come  later.  On  many  points,  however,  we 
Lutherans  are  as  guilty  as  others.  When  we 
probe  for  general  causes  it  behooves  us  to  be 
honest  with  ourselves,  and  constantly  ask,  are 
we  not  also  guilty  here? 

One  mistake  as  to  a  ministry  for  the  country 
is  that  so  many  church  boards,  church  officials 
and  church  schools  have  harbored  the  idea  that 
any  kind  of  a  minister  is  good  enough  for  the 
country.  Preachers  for  the  country  are  not 
supposed  to  need  as  much  preparation  as 
preachers  for  the  city.  Short-cut  schools  and 
short-cut  methods  are  deemed  sufficient  for  the 
country  pastor. 

In  an  investigation  of  the  country  pastors  in 
New  England  it  was  discovered  that  nearly  one- 

79 


80  LUTHEKAN  CHURCH  IN  THE  COUNTRY 

half  were  without  a  full  college  education,  only 
twenty-five  per  cent,  were  seminary  graduates 
and  **  seventy-five  per  cent,  were  lacking  in 
efficiency  from  inadequate  educational  equip- 
ment.'' Prof.  G.  W.  Fiske,  author  of  ''The 
Challenge  of  the  Country''  says  on  page  198 
of  the  book:  ''As  near  as  can  be  determined 
about  twenty  per  cent,  of  rural  ministers  the 
country  over  are  educated  men;  though  prob- 
ably ten  per  cent,  of  them  have  had  a  full  pro- 
fessional training."  Truly  a  startling  state- 
ment! In  the  middle  west  and  on  to  the  west 
coast  graduates  of  the  Moody  Bible  Institute 
are  trying  to  serve  country  pastorates.  A  large 
proportion  of  them  are  dismal  failures. 

We  have  seen  that  country  people  as  a  class 
are  serious  and  thoughtful.  They  think  pa- 
tiently and  deeply  on  the  problems  brought 
before  them.  They  are  full  of  hard  questions. 
They  are  drawn  toward  the  man  who  can  sit 
down  and  sympathetically  and  intelligently 
enter  into  their  difficulties  and  help  them  to  a 
way  out.  They  will  go  to  hear  such  men  preach. 
If  the  preaching  enlightens,  instructs,  answers 
questionings  of  their  own  minds  and  satisfies 
the  deeper  yearnings  of  their  earnest  souls 
these  men  will  be  won.  But  this  requires  edu- 
cated ministers,  men  of  broad  culture,  clear 
thinkers  as  well  as  men  of  tender  sympathy. 
The  minister  needs  to  understand  the  individual 


CAUSES  OF  CHURCH  DECLINE  (CONTINUED)         81 

and  the  social  psychology  of  the  country  mind. 
He  needs  to  have  an  intelligent  grasp  of  the 
problems  peculiar  to  the  country.  He  needs 
special  training  along  these  lines.  A  mere  ex- 
horter,  be  he  never  so  earnest,  will  not  and  can 
not  satisfy  the  serious,  thinking  men  of  the 
country.  They  want  a  spiritual  guide  who  can 
understand,  enter  into  and  sympathize  with 
their  perplexities  and  can  patiently  show  them 
the  true  solution. 

And  withal,  the  farmer  wants  a  minister  who 
knows  and  loves  the  country.  The  country 
pastor  needs  to  be  much  in  the  homes  and  fields 
of  the  people.  He  ought  to  be  able  to  talk  in- 
telligently on  soils  and  culture  and  fertilizing 
and  plant  and  animal  pests.  He  ought  to  know 
about  horses  and  hens  and  hogs  and  cattle.  He 
ought  to  be  able  to  show  how  labor  can  be 
lightened  in  field  and  barn  and  house.  He 
ought  to  be  able  to  show  how  country  life  in 
the  home  and  on  the  farm  can  be  made  more 
comfortable  and  more  happy  without  impair- 
ing its  efficiency  and  profitableness.  All  this 
by  no  means  as  a  substitute  for  the  spiritual 
side  of  his  private  and  public  ministry  but  as 
an  aid  to  it. 

We  recall  a  scholarly  and  deeply  consecrated 
young  German  pastor  in  the  country.  He  had 
a  rationalistic  and  skeptical  neighbor  whom  he 
had  not  been  able  to  get  to  come  to  church. 


82  LUTHERAN  CHURCH   IN   THE  COUNTRY 

One  day  the  preacher  found  the  farmer  sitting 
on  a  fence  and  looking  intently  over  a  field.  The 
pastor  took  a  seat  at  the  farmer's  side.  The 
farmer  confided  that  he  had  been  in  a  deep 
study  as  to  what  to  do  with  that  particular  field 
which  had  disappointed  him  for  several  years. 
The  preacher  informed  the  farmer  that  the  field 
needed  specific  treatment.  The  soil  was  pecu- 
liar, it  needed  deep  plowing,  more  frequent  and 
deeper  cultivation  and  a  certain  kind  of  fertil- 
izer that  would  supply  what  was  lacking  in  the 
soil.  The  farmer  listened  with  open  mouth  and 
ears.  He  afterwards  expressed  his  surprise 
to  a  neighbor  that  that  young  snip  of  a 
preacher  had  really  instructed  him  in  farming. 
Before  long  that  farmer  brought  his  family,  a 
wagon  full,  to  church.  The  pastor  won  the 
family  by  winning  its  head.  As  he  told  us  **he 
had  to  begin  with  manure." 

Have  our  colleges  and  seminaries  trained 
such  men?  Have  we  not  all  too  often  held  up 
the  city  pastorate  as  the  ideal,  and  the  country 
pastorate  as  a  temporary  make-shift  and  a 
waiting  place  for  a  city  call!  Insofar  as  the 
Seminary  has  taken  such  a  position  it  is  re- 
sponsible for  country  decline.  It  is  time  for 
our  seminaries  to  change.  They  need  to  realize 
that  as  goes  the  country  so  goes  the  city.  The 
blood  from  the  country  has  been  the  saving  of 


CAUSES  OF  CHURCH  DECLINE  (CONTINUED)         83 

the  city.  If  the  country  salt  loses  its  savor 
wherewith  shall  the  city  be  salted? 

Because  such  a  large  proportion  of  Seminary 
graduates  have  gone  out  unwillingly  into  coun- 
try work,  with  a  prejudice  against  it  we  have 
the  sad  fact  of  short  pastorates.  The  short 
pastorate  is  a  calamity  anywhere.  But  es- 
pecially in  the  country  where  it  takes  time  to 
get  acquainted  and  to  win  confidence.  The 
abounding  short  pastorates  are  a  prolific  cause 
of  country  decline. 

Because  so  many  ministers  have  an  aversion 
to  living  in  the  country  we  find  such  a  large 
proportion  who  do  not  live  among  their  people 
but  have  their  homes  in  the  distant  town.  Dr. 
Wilson,  of  the  Presbyterian  board  of  home 
missions,  who  speaks  with  authority,  affirms 
that  of  their  one  hundred  and  ninety-two 
country  ministers  in  Missouri  only  two  live 
with  their  people  in  the  open  country.  One  of 
the  Ohio  Surveys  claims  that  only  six  per  cent, 
of  the  country  churches  of  that  state  have  resi- 
dent pastors.  The  statement  is  made  that 
**mail  order  preaching  is  killing  the  country 
churches.'' 

The  absentee  pastor  cannot  be  the  seelsorger 
that  his  church  and  community  need.  How  can 
he  be  a  fisher  of  men,  fishing  for  everj^  un- 
churched soul  within  reach  of  his  parish?  How 
can  he,  as  a  good  under-shepherd  **know  his 


84         LUTHERAN  CHURCH  IN   THE  COUNTRY 

sheep/'  know  them  by  name,  and  be  known  of 
them?  How  can  he  feed  his  sheep  and  feed  his 
lambs?  How  can  he  know  when  a  sheep  or 
lamb  is  going  astray  and  is  in  danger  of  being 
lost,  or  is  lost?  How  can  he  go  out  after  the 
lost,  every  one  of  them  and  seek  until  he  find 
them?  In  so  far  as  he  does  not  constantly, 
patiently,  persistently  and  prayerfully  do  all 
this  he  is  a  faithless  shepherd  if  not  a  hireling. 
We  cannot  understand  the  conception  of  the 
pastoral  office  work  and  responsibility  of  the 
pastor  who  does  not  live  among  his  people. 
Absentee  pastors  are  guilty  of  promoting  the 
decline  of  the  country  church. 

Preaching  on  secular  subjects  is  another 
cause.  The  man  who  preaches  on  the  need  and 
benefits  of  the  Grange,  on  good  roads,  better 
markets,  and  more  favorable  shipping  facilities 
for  farm  produce;  the  man  of  God  who  dis- 
courses on  the  possibilities  of  the  gasoline  en- 
gine, the  motor  truck  or  the  best  method  of 
fighting  the  corn  aphis  or  wheat  rust  or  peach 
borer  or  plum  curculio  or  pear  blight  or  San 
Jose  scale  or  cattle  tick  or  foot  and  mouth  dis- 
ease or  any  other  such  secular  subject  had  bet- 
ter quit  calling  himself  a  minister  of  the  Gospel. 
The  man  who  uses  the  sacred  desk  for  spinning 
out  his  speculations  on  rural  recreation  and 
country  cooperation  had  better  step  down  from 
the  pulpit  and  seek  a  place  on  the  chautauqua 


CAUSES  OF  CHURCH  DECLINE  (CONTINUED)         85 

platform  or  on  the  extension  lecture  force  of 
the  agricultural  college.  As  we  have  seen,  it  is 
a  good  thing  for  the  pastor  to  be  informed  on 
all  these  and  kindred  topics.  He  ought  to  be 
able  to  talk  intelligently  on  them  to  his  people 
as  he  goes  from  house  to  house — provided  al- 
ways that  he  does  not  let  these  subjects  crowd 
out  his  spiritual,  personal,  seelsorger  messages. 
It  may  be  a  good  thing  also  for  him,  if  he  is 
thoroughly  competent,  to  lecture  on  week  nights 
in  the  school  house  or  elsewhere.  But  to  make 
these  things  the  staple  of  his  preaching  is  to 
be  recreant  to  his  trust.  This  does  not  mean 
that  he  should  not  bring  them  in  as  matter  of 
illustration  and  application.  Happy  is  he  who 
is  apt  in  so  doing.  But  he  dare  not  use  them 
for  dispensing  with  the  Gospel.  The  old  Ger- 
man Eationalists  did  so  and  nearly  killed  the 
country  church  in  Germany.  Such  preaching 
will  kill  the  country  church  in  our  land  also. 

Another  kind  of  preaching  that  is  treason  to 
God  and  killing  to  the  country  church  is  the 
preaching  of  the  new,  liberal  theology.  This 
theology  has  spread  from  the  city  to  the  coun- 
try. It  boasts  itself  of  having  broken  the  fet- 
ters that  bound  it  to  a  dead  past.  It  is  free 
from  all  tradition.  It  scoffs  at  creeds  and  con- 
fessions of  faith.  Its  children's  minds  are  not 
to  be  hampered  or  darkened  by  gloomy  cate- 
chisms.   It  has  thrown  away  the  old  doctrines 


86         LUTHERAN  CHUECH  IN   THE  COUNTRY 

of  sin  and  native  depravity.  Man  has  within 
himself  all  the  potencies  and  the  powers  to 
make  him  what  he  ought  to  be.  All  he  needs  to 
do  is  to  evolve  his  better  self  out  of  himself. 
With  his  own  inherent  strength  and  reason  he 
can  make  of  himself  all  that  he  ought  to  be. 
Modern  education  will  soon  bring  in  a  new  race. 
Ethical  culture  will  make  a  new  civilization. 
Those  who  still  trouble  society  with  violence 
and  crime  are  the  victims  of  wrong  breeding. 
They  are  defective  without  any  fault  of  their 
own.  It  is  unworthy  of  this  age  to  punish  them. 
They  are  to  be  pitied.  They  need  treatment 
and  cure  in  hospitals.  Their  maladies  will 
soon  be  better  understood  and  will  then  be 
eliminated  by  the  beneficent  regime  of  special- 
ists. Eugenics  will  prevent  the  births  of  other 
defectives.  When  once  the  new  teaching  gets 
full  sway  all  will  be  well-born  and  there  will  be 
no  more  hurtful  environment. 

Such  inane  stuff  is  being  preached  from 
thousands  of  pulpits.  The  old  Bible  doctrines 
of  inherited  sin,  of  the  corruption  of  human 
nature,  of  its  utter  inability  to  change  or  save 
itself,  of  its  crushing  guilt  and  certain  doom  if 
left  to  itself,  these  age  old  beliefs  are  held  up 
as  relics  of  dark  ages  and  are  not  so  much  as 
to  be  named  by  the  cultured  sons  of  the  twen- 
tieth century. 

Since  there  is  no  sin  in  the  old  sense  man 


CAUSES  OF  CHURCH  DECLINE  (cONTINUEd)        87 

needs  no  Saviour.  Every  man  is  his  own  Sav- 
iour. Good  example  and  good  teaching  are 
beneficent  and  uplifting.  The  world  has  always 
had  such  encouraging  and  helpful  exemplars. 
Jesus  of  Nazareth  was  one  of  them.  The  idea 
that  he  was  virgin-born  is  too  silly  to  be  laughed 
at.  He  was  divine,  was  the  Son  of  God  in  no 
other  sense  than  this,  that  you  and  I  all  can  be 
divine,  sons  of  God  even  as  He  was.  He  was 
ahead  of  his  time  and  died  a  martyr  to  his 
teaching.  He  set  us  an  example  that  we  also 
should  be  willing  to  sacrifice  ourselves  for  the 
uplifting  of  humanity.  The  idea  of  a  vicarious 
atonement  is  too  abhorent  to  mention. 

Kingcraft  and  priestcraft  have  kept  men  in 
ignorance  in  the  past  in  order  that  the  strong 
might  exploit  the  weak  and  that  the  smart 
might  live  riotously  from  the  labors  of  the  ig- 
norant. The  exploiters  have  fooled  the  people 
by  making  them  believe  that  if  they  would  be 
submissive  and  work  hard  they  would  get  an 
easy  and  a  happy  place  in  Heaven, 

But  such  fables  we  no  longer  believe.  We 
are  now  using  our  science  and  our  effort  here 
to  make  this  world  and  our  life  here  a  heaven. 
Our  social  science  and  social  service  will  soon 
make  everybody  good  and  happy.  As  to  a 
future  life,  we  don't  know.  We  are  too  busy 
making   this   life   worth   living   for   all.     We 


88  LUTHERAN  CHURCH  IN   THE  COUNTRY 

should  rather  wear  diamonds  in  Chicago  than 
jewels  in  Heaven. 

Such  is  the  stuff  that  is  doled  out  in  many  of 
the  depleted  churches  in  the  country.  It  is  no 
wonder  that  the  lodge  is  supplanting  the 
church.  No  wonder  that  the  country  is  heathen- 
izing.   History  is  only  repeating  itself. 


The  patriotic  American  who  thinks  of  the 
life  of  the  nation  rather  than  of  the  individual 
will,  if  he  looks  beneath  the  surface,  discern  in 
this  God-prospered  country  symptoms  of  rural 
decadence  frought  with  danger  to  national  effi- 
ciency.— Horace  Plunket, 

Give  therefore  thy  servant  an  understanding 
heart  to  judge  thy  people  that  I  may  discern 
between  good  and  evil. — Solomon, 

The  children  of  Issachar  were  men  that  had 
understanding  of  the  times,  to  know  what  Israel 
ought  to  do. — First  Chronicles. 


CHAPTER  TEN. 


LUTHERANS  AND  LAND. 


As  a  class  our  Lutherans  love  the  country.  A 
large  proportion  of  them  live  in  the  country. 
No  other  church  has  so  large  a  proportion  of 
her  membership  in  the  country.  It  is  doubtful 
also  whether  any  other  church  has  as  large  a 
ratio  of  land  owners.  Lutherans  are  a  thrifty 
people.  They  hate  debt.  They  are  averse  to 
paying  rent  and  interest.  They  have  a  consum- 
ing ambition  to  own  their  homes.  If  they  start 
as  land  renters  they  end  as  land  owners.  Their 
quiet  conservative  character  makes  country  life 
agreeable  to  them.  They  are  adapted  to  the 
soil.  They  make  good  farmers  and  gardeners. 
They  succeed  where  others  fail.  Thousands  of 
farms,  abandoned  by  Yankees  have  been  bought 
by  Lutherans  and  been  made  to  yield  like  the 
gardens  of  the  gods.  Eural  New  England  is 
being  rehabilitated  by  thrifty  Lutheran  homes 
and  families.  Lutheran  farmers  made  Eastern 
Pennsylvania  rich.  They  have  been  the  makers 
of  the  prosperous  districts  of  the  Middle  West. 
They  planted  prosperity  in  the  newer  states  of 
the  great  West.    They  are  a  powerful  asset  to 

91 


92  LUTHERAN  CHURCH  IN  THE  COUNTRY 

the  states  in  which  they  are  strong.    They  are 
getting  rich. 

It  is  a  matter  of  absorbing  interest  to  study 
these  people.  America  and  Americans  need  to 
understand  them.  They  can  learn  many  needed 
lessons  from  them.  To  understand  them  means 
to  appreciate  them. 

The  earliest  Lutheran  immigrants  did  not 
come  to  America  from  love  of  adventure  or 
from  love  of  gold.  They  were  driven  from  their 
fatherlands  by  persecution.  The  Dutch  who 
settled  New  Amsterdam  and  laid  the  founda- 
tions of  the  Empire  State  with  its  colossal  city 
were  driven  from  Holland  by  religious  oppres- 
sion. The  palatines  who  became  the  famous 
so-called  thrifty  '^ Pennsylvania  Dutch'*  who 
made  the  Keystone  State  so  prosperous  came 
for  conscience's  sake.  Like  the  Pilgrim 
Fathers  they  wanted  freedom  to  worship  God. 
The  Salzburgers,  who  colonized  in  Georgia, 
whose  deep  spiritual  life  made  such  an  impres- 
sion on  both  Wesley  and  Whitefield  and  who 
thus  indirectly  contributed  to  the  good  that  was 
in  early  Methodism  had  been  banished  from 
home  and  homeland  because  they  prized  their 
evangelical  faith  above  all  earthly  possessions. 
Several  generations  later  the  Germans  who 
settled  on  the  banks  of  the  Mississippi  and 
made  the  mighty  Missouri   synod  were  also 


LUTHERANS  AND  LAND  93 

moved  by  love  of  religious  freedom.  They  too 
wanted  liberty  of  conscience. 

Thousands  of  Scandinavians  also  have  come 
to  America  because  they  did  not  like  the  spirit 
and  conduct  of  the  state  church  in  the  home- 
land. They  all  appreciate  a  free  church  in  a 
free  land. 

The  Lutheran  Church  in  America  is  the  only 
church  whose  pulpits  and  professors'  chairs 
are  free  from  negative  critical  teaching  and 
tendency.  The  so-called  New  Theology  finds 
no  advocate  in  our  churches  or  schools.  No  Lu- 
theran synod  will  tolerate  as  a  member  any 
teacher,  preacher  or  professor  who  voices  a 
doubt  as  to  the  integrity  and  inspiration  of  the 
Scriptures  as  God  gave  them.  In  all  our  pul- 
pits and  schools  the  teaching  as  to  God 's  revela- 
tion rings  clear  and  true.  No  note  of  doubt  is 
heard.    We  preach  faith,  not  doubt. 

Our  country  churches  therefore  are  free 
from  the  baleful  blight  that  is  killing  so  many 
others.  To  the  dangers  in  other  quarters  we 
referred  in  the  last  chapter.  This  needs 
to  be  repeatedly  emphasized.  It  will  not  be  out 
of  place  here  to  add  a  quotation  of  what  we 
wrote  elsewhere: 

''Under  the  garb  of  science,  philosophy,  rea- 
son and  the  larger  light,  unbelief  now  comes 
into  the  homes  and  churches  in  the  pretended 
literature  of  religion,  in  the  periodicals  and 


94  LUTHERAN  CHURCH   IN   THE  COUNTRY 

helps  of  the  Sunday-school  and  in  religious  and 
church  journals.  It  teaches  in  the  Sunday- 
school,  preaches  in  the  pulpit  and  speaks  from 
the  professor's  chair.  Church  colleges  and 
Seminaries  are  permeated  with  sugar-coated 
poison. 

**  As  a  result  large  masses  of  cultured  people, 
who  claim  to  be  friends  of  Christianity  and 
even  members  of  the  church  no  longer  believe 
that  God  has  given  us  a  real  revelation  of  Him- 
self, of  His  truth  and  His  Will,  and  that  He 
raised  up  and  inspired  certain  men  to  record 
this  revelation  and  that  we  have  it  in  the  old 
book  the  Bible.  As  there  is  no  inspired  revela- 
tion there  is  no  miracle,  no  special  providence, 
no  place  for  prayer.  The  supernatural  is 
eliminated  as  unworthy  of  belief  in  this  en- 
lightened age.  Everything  is  natural  and  has 
come  to  be  what  it  is  by  natural  evolution. 
Hence  there  is  no  sin,  no  need  of  a  divine- 
human  Redeemer,  no  condemnation  of  sin  and 
no  future  punishment.  These  theories,  dressed 
out  in  plausible  form  and  set  forth  in  pious, 
beautiful  and  loving  words  are  deceiving  the 
very  elect  and  are  threatening  to  disintegrate 
a  large  part  of  Reformed  Protestantism. 

The  great  Lutheran  Church  in  our  land  is  not 
troubled  with  such  rationalistic  belief.  She  has 
met  that  old  foe  in  the  old  state  church.  She 
knows  the  enemy,  his  wiles  and  his  danger. 


LUTHERANS   AND  LAND  95 

She  will  not  tolerate  him  within  her  bounds  in 
this  free  land.  And  this  not  because  she  is 
blind  or  credulous.  She  has  produced  the  most 
scholarly  students  in  the  world  and  the  keenest 
critics  and  expositors  of  her  sacred  books.  The 
deepest  research  into  these  questions  has  been 
made  by  the  sons  of  the  Lutheran  church.  She 
has  sounded  and  sifted  these  troubles  and  has 
come  out  satisfied.  And  because  of  her  patient, 
painstaking  and  prayerful  research  and  investi- 
gation :  because  she  has  been  through  the  test- 
ing and  come  out  of  it  convinced,  content  and 
joyful  in  her  faith,  therefore  she  is  no  longer 
tossed  to  and  fro  and  carried  about  with  every 
wind  of  doctrine,  by  the  sleight  of  men  and  cun- 
ning craftiness  whereby  they  lie  in  wait  to  de- 
ceive.'^ 

*'The  Lutheran  Church  has  a  theology  of  her 
own.  It  is  distinct  and  peculiar  to  herself.  It 
is  set  forth  ofiicially  in  her  creeds  and  cate- 
chisms. She  loves  the  doctrines  there  set 
forth.  She  has  never  felt  a  need  of  creed  re- 
vision. The  truths  of  her  theology  can  be 
preached.  Wherever  they  are  clearly  and 
warmly  presented  they  win  adherents.  Think- 
ing people  outside  of  our  church  are  gradually 
finding  out  that  the  old  Church  of  the  Beforma- 
tion  has  a  theology  that  satisfies  both  head  and 
heart."* 

*  See  'Troblems  and  Possibilities,"  pp.  11-13,  also  23,  24,  ff. 


96  LUTHERAN   CHURCH   IN   THE   COUNTRY 

Such  a  church,  with  such  a  message  set  forth 
in  simplicity  and  earnestness  commends  itself 
to  country  people.  It  gives  them  food  for 
thought  and  satisfies  their  longing.  It  is  what 
they  need  and  are  waiting  for. 

The  Lutheran  Church  cannot  favor  and  does 
not  want  union  with  churches  of  another  faith 
and  another  spirit.  She  cannot  go  into  an 
amalgamation  or  federation  with  such  alien 
churches  in  the  country  town.  But  she  is  draw- 
ing more  and  more  from  those  who  have 
dropped  out  or  are  dissatisfied  in  the  loose, 
liberal,  wavering  or  fanatical  churches  around. 
The  Lutheran  Church  mil  live  in  the  country 
and  in  the  country  town  when  the  others  are 
dead.  The  better  people  of  the  dying  and  dead 
churches  will  find  a  comfortable  and  happy 
spiritual  home  in  the  Lutheran  Church.  The 
day  is  fast  coming  when  the  Lutheran  Church 
will  regain  from  others  more  than  she  ever  lost 
to  them. 

Lutheran  farmers  all  over  our  country  are 
rapidly  growing  rich.  This  is  especially  true 
of  the  great  Mississippi  Valley  and  its  tributar- 
ies. It  will  be  true  also  in  the  Pacific  Coast 
states.  As  we  have  noted,  Lutherans  are  al- 
ways pious  toward  land.  They  know  the  char- 
acter of  good  soil  and  they  generally  find  it. 
They  can  also  make  what  others  call  poor  soil 
rich.     They  are  leaders  in  scientific  farming. 


LUTHERANS   AND  LAND  97 

Young  Lutherans  are  crowding  the  agricultural 
schools  all  over  the  country,  but  more  especially 
in  the  West.  These  are  the  sons  and  daughters 
of  the  erstwhile  sturdy  and  struggling  pioneer. 
The  early  settlers  cheerfully  and  patiently  en- 
dured the  hardships  and  privations  incident  to 
the  hewing  out  of  homes  in  the  forest,  on  the 
prairie  or  in  the  jungle.  They  and  their  sons 
are  becoming  the  independent  lords  of  the  land. 
They  have  their  sections  of  acres,  palatial 
homes,  flocks  and  herds  and  tenants  and  tour- 
ing cars.  One  of  these  Lutheran  lords  of  the 
soil  recently  gave  to  each  one  of  his  eight  chil- 
dren a  section,  i.  e.,  six  hundred  and  forty  acres 
of  the  richest  and  best  improved  land.  Such 
Lutherans  will  soon  be  counted  by  the  thousand. 

Then  what  of  the  country  church  in  their 
midst?  Will  worldliness,  luxury  and  dissipation 
increase  and  make  them  forget  their  church?  or 
will  they  remain  loyal  and  consecrate  their 
wealth  to  the  church,  her  interests,  operations 
and  institutions? 

Surely  the  land-love  and  land-prosperity  of 
such  people,  with  such  admirable  traits  and 
characters,  made  what  they  are  by  the  dear  old 
Lutheran  Church,  ought  to  safeguard  and  pro- 
mote the  country  church  in  their  midst 


CHAPTEE  ELEVEN. 

THE  LUTHEKAN   SITUATION   TODAY. 

A  Bundle  of  Letters, 

There  is  no  other  Protestant  Church  in 
America  so  harmonious  in  its  creed,  so  unani- 
mous in  its  belief  and  teaching  as  the  Lutheran 
Church.  With  the  exception  of  one  large  body 
which  has  tried  to  bring  an  alien  doctrine,  a 
doctrine  that  does  not  fit  in,  into  our  theology,* 
there  is  a  remarkable  unity  in  the  official  de- 
clarations and  demands  as  to  our  teaching. 
There  are  some  differences  as  to  the  serious- 
ness in  which  the  official  declarations  are  re- 
ceived and  the  consistency  with  which  the  prin- 
ciples are  carried  out.  We  are  hoping  and 
praying  for  a  better  day  along  these  lines.  In- 
sincerity and  inconsistency  as  to  Lutheran 
teaching  and  Lutheran  practice  have  hindered 
and  hurt  the  Lutheran  Church  in  the  country. 

Our  church  practically  covers  the  North 
American  continent.  She  is  the  third  largest 
Protestant  church  and  is  growing  in  ratio  of 
membership  more  rapidly  than  any  other.     If 

*  See  "Problems  and  Possibilities,"  pp.  164-168. 

98 


THE   LUTHERAN    SITUATION    TODAY  99 

iter  ministry  could  everywhere  have  and  repre- 
sent the  right  spirit  and  the  right  activity  our 
great  church  would  rapidly  forge  to  the  front. 

We  are  divided  into  many  synods.  It  is 
wrong  to  call  our  general  bodies  or  our  synods 
denominations.  They  are  all  Lutheran.  We 
may  call  them  separate  bodies  or  divisions  of 
Lutherans,  but  they  are  not  denominations. 

Divisions  or  synods  and  groups  of  synods  or 
general  bodies  are  caused  partly  by  difference 
of  nationality  and  partly  by  geographical 
location.  True,  some  of  them  differ  from 
others  in  spirit,  in  practice  and  in  tendency. 
But  with  the  above-named  exception  their  is  no 
difference  in  the  officially  accepted  doctrine. 

All  the  synods  have  large  constituencies  in 
the  country.  The  Lutheran  Church  no  doubt 
has  a  larger  country  membership  than  any 
other.  What  is  the  present  day  status  of  the 
Lutheran  Church  in  the  country? 

We  have  tried  to  get  an  intelligent  and  a 
correct  view  of  the  whole  situation  by  years  of 
personal  observation  and  by  interviews  with 
country  pastors.  We  have  written  questionaire 
letters  to  well  informed  men  in  different  synods 
and  in  different  parts  of  the  country.  Every 
Lutheran  who  is  solicitous  for  the  future  wel- 
fare of  his  church  wants  to  know  and  needs  to 
know  these  things.  We  want  to  enlighten  and 
help  all  such  Lutherans. 


100       LUTHERAN  CHURCH  IN  THE  COUNTRY 

We  know  that  in  Eastern  Pennsylvania  our 
church  is  strong  in  the  country.  She  might 
have  been  the  strongest  of  all  in  the  country 
and  in  the  smaller  towns  if  she  had  always 
been  as  alert,  earnest  and  aggressive  as  she 
should  have  been.  We  do  not  desire  to  write 
down  accusations.  But  we  do  fear  that  too 
many  ministers  have  lacked  in  earnestness  of 
heart,  in  consecration,  in  devotion  to  their  work. 
There  have  been  all  too  many  who  have  been 
content  with  performing  the  duties  demanded  in 
the  contract  in  a  cold,  mechanical  and  perfunc- 
tory way.  There  has  been  too  little  personal 
work,  too  little  earnest  heart  to  heart  talk  of 
the  inner  life,  of  the  souPs  personal  relation 
with  God,  of  beseeching  every  one  and  warning 
every  one  night  and  day  with  tears.  Too  little 
true  seelsorge. 

The  pastoral  charges  have  been  too  large  in 
many  places.  The  spiritual  life  cannot  be 
rightly  nourished  with  one  or  two  sermons  a 
month.  Union  churches  have  been  a  calamity 
in  many  sections.  We  are  glad  they  are  com-, 
ing  to  an  end.  There  have  been  and  are  too 
many  absentee  preachers.  They  live  in  the 
town  and  serve  far  away  in  the  country.  Of 
the  evils  of  this  arrangement  we  have  already 
spoken.  Conscientious  Lutheran  pastors  ought 
to  examine  themselves.  They  ought  to  con- 
sider seriously  and  earnestly  whether  such  an 


THE  LUTHERAN    SITUATION    TODAY  101 

arrangement  can  be  in  harmony  with  the 
Lutheran  idea  of  the  office  and  call  of  the 
minister,  with  the  Lutheran  idea  of  real  and 
faithful  seelsorge.  Why  have  so  many  fanati- 
cal sects,  sects  that  are  less  evangelical  but 
more  evangelistic  than  the  Lutherans,  sprung 
up  and  grown  strong  in  the  Lutheran  sections 
of  Eastern  Pennsylvania,  as  well  as  in  hun- 
dreds of  other  places  ?  There  must  be  a  reason. 
It  is  our  abiding  conviction  that  where  there  is 
the  right  spiritual  life  and  work  on  the  part  of 
Lutheran  pastors,  these  defective  sects  can  get 
no  significant  hold  in  Lutheran  communities. 

In  rural  Eastern  Pennsylvania  and  all  over 
our  land  the  greatest  need  of  the  Lutheran 
Church  is  a  better  equipped  and  a  more  spirit- 
ual ministry.*  The  Lutheran  Church  is  not 
what  it  ought  to  be  because  country  pastors 
are  not  what  they  ought  to  be. 

But  we  believe  there  is  a  better  day  coming 
in  Eastern  Pennsylvania  also.  We  believe  that 
all  our  seminaries  are  insisting  more  than  for- 
merly on  spiritual  experience  and  consecration 
as  the  prime  requisite  for  an  effective  and  effi- 
cient ministry.  We  would  fain  believe  that  con- 
ditions are  improving  in  the  rural  East. 

We  have  before  us  a  hopeful  letter  from  an 

•Read  over  carefully  '^Problems  and  Possibilities,"  pp. 
46-56,  also  "The  Lutheran  Pastor,"  pp.  58-68,  and  the  whole 
of  chap,  vii  with  a  careful  reading  of  all  the  scripture  re- 
ferences. 


102        LUTHEBAN  CHURCH  IN   THE  COUNTRY 

East  Pennsylvania  minister.  While  lie  admits 
the  drawbacks  and  dangers  he  believes  there  is 
general  improvement  and  progress  in  the 
country  churches.  He  admits  that  the  trolley 
cars,  the  autos  and  telephones  bring  many  to 
church,  but  they  also  keep  many  away.  He 
deplores  the  abounding  practice  of  Sunday  visit- 
ing and  Sunday  excursions.  He  intimates  that 
the  problem  is  serious  and  needs  to  be  studied. 
More  earnest  country  work  is  needed. 

We  have  another  letter  from  a  prominent  and 
influential  minister  in  the  Joint  Synod  of  Ohio. 
He  knows  the  churches  in  his  Synod  as  few; 
men  do.  Speaking  in  general  he  says  that  the 
country  church  problem  is  not  serious  in  his 
synod.  Many  of  the  strongest,  most  progres- 
sive and  liberal  churches  in  the  synod  are 
rural.  The  people  are  largely  prosperous.  In 
many  places  the  local  church  suffers  because 
the  ambitious  young  people  go  to  the  city.  In 
such  congregations  the  most  faithful  and  earn- 
est pastor  cannot  prevent  a  decline.  But  when 
the  departing  members  of  such  a  church  find 
their  way  into  a  Lutheran  Church  in  the  city 
and  become  active  there  the  depleting  of  the 
country  church  is  still  contributing  to  the 
growth  of  the  Kingdom  of  God. 

He  admits  that  there  is  often  a  local  decline. 
Sometimes  it  is  caused  by  a  lack  of  such  ma- 
terial   as    Lutherans    generally    draw    from. 


THE  LUTHERAN   SITUATION    TODAY  103 

**Tlie  most  prolific  cause  of  decline  in  city  as 
well  as  in  country  is  an  incompetent  and  un- 
spiritual  ministry.  I  find  country  churches 
that  are  spiritually  barren.  There  has  been  no 
growth  in  intellectual  breadth  and  sympathy. '' 
*^Too  often  the  German  church  will  fight  the 
English  with  a  persistence  worthy  of  a  better 
cause.  The  young  people  become  alienated  and 
the  Eeformed  churches  fatten  on  Lutheran 
blood.  *'  **  Country  churches  suffer  also  from 
too  frequent  pastoral  changes.'' 

**In  the  most  numerous  class  of  country  con- 
gregations nothing  has  been  done  to  supply; 
the  social  wants  of  the  people  which  are  more 
pronounced  in  the  country  than  in  the  city. 
For  this  reason  the  young  people  bid  fair  to 
become  alienated.  And  yet  it  should  be  easier 
to  hold  the  young  people  in  the  country  than 
in  the  city.'' 

**The  congregation  should  be  imbued  with  a 
sense  of  responsibility  for  the  welfare  of  the 
neighborhood.  I  have  seen  congregations  be- 
come spiritually  barren  because  they  had  lost 
the  esteem  of  the  best  people  in  the  community. 
Immoral  men  were  in  the  lead  in  the  congrega- 
tion, scandals  were  rife,  and  the  moral  tone 
was  low.  Such  congregations  deserve  to  de- 
cline. There  was  a  previous  decline  of  spiritu- 
ality." 

We  have  quoted  the  substance  of  our  dear 


104       LUTHERAN  CHURCH  IN  THE  COUNTRY 

friend's  letter.    It  has  much  food  for  thought 
and  serious  self-examination. 

We  turn  next  to  the  sunny  Southland.  We 
have  an  informing  letter  from  the  enthusiastic 
and  aggressive  Secretary  of  the  Board  of  Home 
Missions  and  Church  Extension  of  the  United 
Sjoiod  of  the  South. 

He  says,  ^*  During  my  two  years  of  service 
as  Secretary  of  the  Board  I  have  travelled 
about  seventy  thousand  miles.  I  have  visited 
practically  every  section  of  the  South  where 
our  church  is  found.  Hence  I  think  I  can  give 
you  reliable  information. 

^^My  answer  to  your  question  as  to  whether 
the  Lutheran  Church  in  the  country  is  declin- 
ing I  answer  with  a  positive  No.  Our  church 
in  the  South  is  nine-tenths  rural.  We  have 
comparatively  few  congregations  even  in  towns 
of  twenty-five  hundred.  I  have  found  a  few 
localities  where  Lutheran  practices,  such  as 
catechization,  liturgical  worship,  confession 
and  absolution,  preaching  of  pure  doctrine,  etc., 
have  been  abandoned.  At  such  places  our 
church  languishes  and  in  a  few  congregations 
it  is  threatened  with  extinction. 

**  Otherwise  there  is  no  decline.  The  country 
church  is  taking  on  new  life.  Modern  improve- 
ments, such  as  mail  facilities,  better  roads, 
better  schools,  the  telephone,  the  increased 
value  of  farm  products  have  made  rural  life 


l^HE  LtTTHERAK    SITUATION    TODAY  105 

more  attractive.  It  is  an  industrial  way  the 
farmer  is  on  top.  It  is  strictly  not  true  that 
our  rural  church  is  going  to  the  dogs.  As 
proof  look  at  our  church  schools,  our  home  and 
foreign  mission  work,  our  church  paper,  all 
projected  and  supported  by  a  rural  constitu- 
ency. 

*  *  The  exceptions  only  prove  the  rule.  The  de- 
cline is  serious  in  a  few  instances  I  have  met 
with.  A  return  to  strictly  Lutheran  practice, 
catechetics  in  particular,  will  save  the  day  even 
in  the  exceptional  places." 

We  are  glad  indeed  to  publish  this  letter.  We 
have  had  for  a  long  time  a  warm  interest  and 
a  great  admiration  for  the  wonderful  work,  the 
heroism  and  the  optimism  of  our  church  in  the 
South.  The  letter  ought  to  be  a  tonic  for  every 
country  pastor. 


CHAPTER  TWELVE. 
THE  SITUATION  AND  LETTERS  (Continued), 

There  are  between  two  and  a  half  and  three 
millions  of  Scandinavians  in  America.  Nearly 
half  a  million  are  Danes.  Reserving  the  larger 
sections  of  Scandinavians  for  later  considera- 
tion we  here  survey  the  children  of  Denmark. 
These  are  not  so  well-known  by  American 
Lutherans  as  are  the  more  numerous  Swedes 
and  Norwegians.  They  deserve  to  be  better 
known.  They  are  an  interesting  people  with 
an  intensely  interesting  history.  Their 
achievements  in  the  development  of  education 
in  and  for  the  country,  as  well  as  their  bringing 
in  of  a  peculiar  type  of  country  life  and  country 
prosperity  have  arrested  and  drawn  the  at- 
tention of  the  leading  students  of  the  country 
life  movement  and  of  education  for  the  countrv 
life. 

The  one  Danish  man  now  so  prominently 
before  American  educators  is  Bishop  Grundvig. 
He  certainly  was  a  remarkable  man,  a  many- 
sided  genius,  a  character  made  up  of  contra- 
dictory elements.  A  wonderful  scholar,  he 
warned  against  too  much  book-learning.  A 
106 


SITUATION  AND  LETTERS  (CONTINUED)         107 

pietist  by  experience,  he  impressed  an  idealistic 
intellectualism  on  Ms  scholars.  An  opponent  of 
the  reigning  rationalism,  he  opened  its  flood- 
gates by  repudiating  confessional  Lutheranism. 
An  enemy  of  destructive  biblical  criticism,  he 
gave  a  deadly  blow  to  implicit  faith  in  the  Bible, 
by  practically  subordinating  it  to  the  Apostles' 
Creed.  An  enthusiastic  supporter  of  Danish 
nationalism,  he  repudiated  the  state  church  and 
contended  for  the  separation  of  the  church  from 
the  state.    Truly  a  medley  of  mixtures. 

This  remarkable  man  is  having  a  great  in- 
fluence in  country  life  circles  among  us.  He 
gave  a  powerful  impetus  to  the  movement  for 
a  more  remunerative  and  a  happier  country 
life  in  his  own  land.  He  founded  the  best 
country  high-school  system  in  the  world.  He 
demonstrated  that  a  true  cultural  education  is 
fundamental  to  and  promotes  a  worthy  voca- 
tional training.  He  arrested  the  exodus  from 
farm  to  city  and  brought  in  a  real  and  satisfy- 
ing back  to  the  land  movement. 

Unfortunately  he  divided  the  Lutheran 
Church  in  Denmark  and  created  the  Grunvigian 
party.  He  thus  indirectly  became  the  cause  of 
the  division  of  the  Danish  Lutherans  in 
America.  There  are  two  Danish  synods.  The 
one  adheres  to  the  teaching  of  Grundvig.  The 
one  synod  is  the  Danish  Evangelical  Lutheran 
Church  in  America.    The  other  is  the  United 


108       LUTHERAN  CHURCH  IN  THE  COUNTRY 

Danish  Evangelical  Lutheran  Church  in  Amer- 
ica. 

The  people  in  both  of  these  bodies,  as  well  as 
the  large  number  of  Danish  people  who  are  not 
gathered  into  any  congregations,  all  brought 
with  them  from  the  old  world  a  love  of  country 
life.  They  also  brought  with  them  the  ability 
to  make  farming  pay.  They  are  among  the 
most  prosperous  farmers  of  the  great  agricul- 
tural states  of  the  West.  Their  church  work  in 
the  country  is  good.  What  they  need  is  a  more 
earnest  and  persistent  effort  to  gather  in  the 
unchurched  that  are  so  numerous  and  are 
heathenizing  in  this  Christian  land. 

We  quote  from  a  prominent  pastor  and  edu- 
cator among  them : 

**Our  work  in  general  has  the  best  results  in 
the  country  churches.  One  reason  for  the  pros- 
perity of  our  country  work  is  that  we  are  or- 
ganizing it  into  smaller  parishes.  In  settle- 
ments where  we  formerly  had  two  pastors  we 
now  have  ten.  Our  people  take  to  the  country 
life  where  opportunity  is  given." 

Our  hope  is  that  with  the  improvement  of 
their  colleges  and  seminaries  and  with  the  ap- 
preciation of  the  need  of  English  and  their 
more  vigorous  effort  to  meet  this  need  they  will 
become  an  important  factor  for  our  Lutheran 
cause  in  the  great  West.  We  also  hope  that 
by  and  by  their  divisions  will  be  healed  and  that 


SITUATION  AND  LETTERS  (CONTINUED)         109 

they  will  work  together  for  the  ingathering  and 
upbuilding  of  the  spiritual  life  of  the  thousands 
of  their  people  who  have  not  become  active 
members  of  their  congregations. 

For  a  general  view  of  the  country  situation 
in  the  aggressive  and  enthusiastic  General 
Synod  we  turn  to  a  very  instructive  pamphlet 
on  **The  Lutheran  Church  and  the  Eural 
Problem,"  by  the  Eev.  Paul  Harold  Heisey, 
of  Des  Moines,  Iowa. 

He  says:  ** There  are  some  rural  churches 
growing,  some  are  standing  still,  some  are 
dying  and  some  are  dead.  This  is  true  in  face 
of  the  fact  that  probably  the  Lutheran  Church 
is  not  suffering  in  rural  decline  as  other  de- 
nominations are." 

To  the  question,  **Does  the  Lutheran  Church 
share  in  what  is  known  as  the  decline  of  the 
rural  church  T'  Professor  E.  B.  Peery  an- 
swers :    *  *  Yes,  decidedly. ' ' 

Dr.  Yarger,  then  president  of  the  General 
Synod,  says:  *^The  Lutheran  Church  shares 
slightly  in  what  is  known  as  the  decline  of  the 
rural  church.  In  the  last  twenty  years  our 
General  Synod  has  lost,  I  would  say,  about 
twenty  churches  in  that  way,  not  all  in  the  open 
country  but  in  small  towns  of  a  few  hundred 
inhabitants. ' ' 

Dr.  S.  J.  McDowell  answers,  **She  does,  but 
possibly  not  as  greatly  as  some  sister  denomi- 


110       LUTHERAN  CHURCH  IN   THE  COUNTRY 

nations,  because  our  people,  especially  those 
of  foreign  birth  or  ancestry  are  a  rural  people 
by  preference/'  Mr.  H.  B.  Gerhart  answers: 
''No,  emphatically  no!'*  Dr.  H.  H.  Weber: 
*'Do  not  think  so."  Dr.  J.  A.  Clutz:  ''Not  to 
any  great  extent,  so  far  as  I  am  familiar  with 
it.  According  to  my  observation  the  great 
majority  of  our  country  and  village  churches 
are  quite  flourishing,  have  good  church  build- 
ings or  are  building  better  ones  and  are  quite 
modern  in  their  facilities  and  methods. ' ' 

The  Swedish  Augustana  Synod  deserves  a 
serious  study  by  all  Lutherans.  We  have  often 
felt  that  it  would  be  a  helpful  experience  for 
some  of  our  German  and  near-German  churches 
to  come  into  closer  personal  contact  with  the 
Swedish  and  Norwegian  Lutherans.  Ever 
since  we  first  came  to  know  and  appreciate 
these  Scandinavian  Lutherans  we  have  felt 
drawn  to  them.  They,  more  than  any  other 
Lutherans  unite  a  doctrinal  soundness  with  a 
deep  spirituality. 

There  are  still  some  foolish,  superficial  Lu- 
therans who  imagine  that  to  be  seriously  con- 
cerned for  confessional  orthodoxy  means  to  be 
endangered  for  spiritual  life.  There  are  still 
some  narrow,  cold,  intellectual  Lutherans  who, 
because  these  good  things  have  been  abused 
by  false  and  unsound  fanatics,  are  afraid  to 
emphasize  awakening,  conversion,  experience, 


SITUATION  AND  LETTERS  (CONTINUED)        111 

piety  and  the  inner  Spiritual  life.  They  are 
afraid  lest  by  emphasis  and  insistence  on  the 
subjective  side  the  objective  doctrine  might 
suffer.  Neither  of  these  two  types  are  good 
Lutherans.  They  ought  to  learn  from  the 
Scandinavians  that  a  care  for  sound  doctrine 
and  an  earnest  insistence  on  and  appreciation 
of  a  deep  and  growing  spiritual  experience  be- 
long together.  Among  our  Scandinavian  Lu- 
therans we  can  see  the  union  of  the  two 
exemplified  and  demonstrated.  Not  that  all 
their  members  are  all  that  they  ought  to  be  in 
these  respects.  But  the  two  sides  of  true  Lu- 
theranism  are  emphasized  and  urged  in  their 
schools,  in  their  conventions,  in  their  preaching 
and  teaching  as  well  as  in  their  private  seel- 
sorge  much  more  generally  than  they  are  in 
other  parts  of  our  church.  We  all  need  to  study 
them  and  learn  from  them.  They  can  teach 
the  rest  of  us  many  needed  lessons. 

We  want  to  know  the  situation  in  their 
country  churches.  Of  the  Norwegians  we  speak 
in  another  place. 

We  have  before  us  several  instructive  letters 
from  leading  Augustana  Synod  men.  One  of 
these  has  made  country  church  life  **a  specialty 
both  in  theory  and  in  practice.*'  He  knows 
whereof  he  speaks  and  he  speaks  with  authority. 
He  says: 

**As  to  the  question  of  country  church  de- 


112       LUTHERAN  CHURCH  IN  THE  COUNTRY 

cline  I  will  say  that  there  has  been  during  the 
last  years  and  is  yet  a  noticeable  tendency 
among  our  country  churches  to  decline,  or 
rather  to  decrease  as  to  number  in  membership. 
With  this  decrease  follows  also  a  decline  as  to 
efficiency,  enthusiasm,  financial  strength  and 
support  of  the  general  work. 

**  Among  contributing  causes  are  the  rise  in 
the  price  of  land  and  the  consequent  removal 
to  newer  settlements  in  hope  of  better  oppor- 
tunities. 

''A  general  disgust  with  the  drudgery  of  the 
work  in  the  country,  dissatisfaction  with  social 
conditions,  lack  of  legitimate  recreation,  poor 
schools  and  the  tendency  of  our  day  to  live  too 
much  for  pleasure  and  an  easy  life.  All  this 
makes  the  city  life  look  very  attractive.  Inter- 
marriages with  non-Lutherans  and  the  proselyt- 
ing work  of  the  sects  around  us  also  hurt  us.*' 

Another  valuable  letter  is  from  a  wide- 
awake and  well  informed  leader  among  the 
Swedes.  He  also  knows  his  synod  and  the  con- 
ditions that  prevail.  He  is  one  of  the  younger 
professors  in  their  leading  school  and  is  seri- 
ously solicitous  that  his  church  may  understand 
the  time  and  measure  up  to  her  opportunity 
and  responsibility. 

While  admitting  that  there  is  a  **  tendency 
to  decline"  he  speaks  hopefully  of  the  general 
situation.    He  writes : 


SITUATION  AND  LETTERS  ( CONTINUED)         113 

*  *  The  Swedish  Lutheran  Church  in  the  coun- 
try is  not  declining.  Even  the  older  congre- 
gations are  holding  their  own  except  in  some 
lumber  sections  where  the  saw-mills  are  closing 
down  and  the  population  is  scattering.  Our 
young  people  are  very  loyal  and  seem  to  be 
satisfied  to  wait  for  '^better  times/'  while  the 
language  transition  is  taking  place.  And 
though  the  English  is  being  introduced  rather 
gradually,  enough  of  it  is  being  used  to  make 
them  feel  that  their  wants  are  being  considered, 
while  the  interests  of  the  old  folks  are  con- 
served and  their  very  natural  prejudices  are 
respected. 

^^Some  years  back  there  was  quite  a  general 
desire  and  eifort  on  the  part  of  the  young 
people  of  our  country  churches  to  move  to  the 
city.  But  they  are  learning  very  rapidly  that 
the  city  does  not  offer  all  the  advantages  and 
the  exodus  is  falling  off  proportionately.  The 
*best  young  people'  seem  to  be  quite  contented 
to  stay  in  the  country  and  in  the  smaller  town, 
excepting  of  course  the  usual  about  equal  pro- 
portion of  discontented  souls  who  hope  to 
better  themselves  by  a  change. 

*'I  think  also  that  the  western  towns  and 
farming  communities  have  better  church  leaders, 
greater  and  more  cheerful  activity,  a  better 
social    spirit,    more    local    patriotism,    better 


114       LUTHERAN  CHURCH  IN  THE  COUNTRY 

physical  comforts  and  a  larger  healthier  spirit 
that  those  of  the  average  East/' 

As  contributing  causes  to  whatever  decline 
may  be  threatening  the  professor  mentions : 

**A  spirit  of  worldliness  a  craving  for  sens- 
uous pastime  by  a  generation  ill  at  ease,  lacking 
in  the  poise  and  repose  of  a  mind  at  peace, 
living  on  the  fruits  of  a  religious  experience  of 
the  past. 

**The  language  question,  the  solution  of 
which  is  not  quite  keeping  pace  with  the  de- 
mands, nor  even  with  the  real  needs. 

**A  one-sided  orthodoxism  in  various  forms 
and  a  slightly  perceptible  ebbing  in  personal  in- 
terest and  spiritual  influence  on  the  part  of 
spiritual  leaders.  The  distraction  of  mind  and 
dissipation  of  energy  in  having  too  many  irons 
in  the  jBre.  Loss  of  power  in  making  wheels 
within  wheels  in  the  machinery.  Lack  of 
literature  that  Hakes'  and  lack  of  rational  (not 
rationalistic)  interpretation  and  practical  ap- 
plication of  scripture  truth. 

^'All  this  might  be  enlarged  upon,  but  it  tells 
the  story.  So  far,  however,  we  are  keeping 
going,  or  are  kept  going,  too  much  I  fear  by 
the  momentum  given  by  the  living  past." 

Surely  the  experiences  of  the  Augustana 
Synod  ought  to  give  us  all  much  food  for  seri- 
ous thought.  Ought  it  not  to  move  us  also  to 
earnest  heart-searching  and  repentance? 


CHAPTER  THIRTEEN. 

THE  SITUATION  AND  LETTERS  (Continued), 

We  turn  now  to  one  of  the  most  earnest,  con- 
secrated, progressive  and  prosperous  bodies  in 
the  Lutheran  Church.  The  annual  conventions 
of  this  body  are  great  mass  meetings.  They 
require  the  largest  public  buildings  in  the  cities 
in  which  they  meet.  At  their  twenty-fifth  an- 
niversary in  Fargo,  N.  D.,  they  overcrowded 
the  Billy  Sunday  tabernacle,  vacated  a  short 
time  before.  They  sit  for  ten  days  and  seem 
to  be  sorry  when  all  is  over.  Their  district 
conventions  are  attended  by  hundreds  even  in 
the  great  cities.  When  they  meet  in  the  coun- 
try the  plow  stands  still  in  the  furrow  and  the 
reaper  in  the  field.  It  is  not  uncommon  to  have 
a  thousand  men,  women  and  children  attend. 
The  laymen  all  have  a  voice  and  take  part 
freely  in  the  discussions. 

The  great  United  Norwegian  Lutheran 
Church  is  probably  the  most  rural  of  all  Lu- 
theran bodies.  Ninety-five  per  cent,  of  the 
members  belong  to  and  worship  in  country  con- 
gregations. And  yet  they  are  doing  wonders. 
They  are  putting  other  Lutherans  and  even 

115 


116        LUTHERAN   CHURCH  IN   THE  COUNTRY 

other  denominations  to  shame  by  what  they 
are  doing  for  education,  for  missions  and  for 
mercy.  The  blessing  of  God  is  upon  them. 
Their  religion  is  experimental,  hearty,  conse- 
crated, as  well  as  soundly  Lutheran. 

We  have  before  us  a  profoundly  interesting 
portrayal  of  the  country  situation  in  that 
great  body  by  one  of  its  leading  men,  one  who 
was  born  and  brought  up  in  it  and  who  knows 
it  from  end  to  end.  He  says  in  substance 
among  other  things:  *^In  Illinois  and  Iowa 
some  of  our  rural  congregations  are  losing  in 
numbers  because  many  of  the  people  are  selling 
their  farms  and  moving  to  the  richer  and 
cheaper  lands  in  the  Northwest  and  in  Canada. 
They  are  getting  rich.  The  tremendous  mater- 
ial prosperity  of  the  last  decade  has  not  had 
a  good  effect  on  the  spiritual  life  of  our  people. 
This  is  becoming  a  serious  problem. 

''Then,  many  of  our  parishes  are  too  large. 
Where  service  can  be  had  only  every  third  or 
fourth  Sunday  it  is  not  conducive  to  spiritual 
growth.  We  note  in  many  places  a  decrease  in 
attendance  at  the  Lord's  Supper — a  very  bad 
sign. 

''Work  among  the  young  people  is  not  as 
effective  as  it  should  be.  They  are  not  taught 
and  encouraged  as  they  should  be  to  become 
church  workers  and  leaders.  We  are  often  too 
conservative  and  overly  fearful  of  adopting 


SITUATION  AND  LETTEES  (CONTINUED)        117 

new  methods  of  church  work.  We  need  more 
intelligent  and  intensive  work  along  these  lines. 
There  is  not  as  much  of  the  old  Lutheran  type 
of  piety.  Naturally  the  type  on  American  soil 
cannot  be  just  the  same  as  on  Norwegian  soil. ' ' 

(The  serious  question  is  not  so  much  as  to 
whether  it  is  of  the  same  type,  but  rather  as  to 
whether  it  is  of  the  same  character,  the  same 
depth,  the  same  earnestness,  the  same  trans- 
forming power  that  makes  its  possessor  live  in 
daily  heart  communion  with  God,  that  fills  the 
home  life  with  the  cheerful,  happy  atmosphere 
of  spiritual  life  and  joyful  service,  that  makes 
the  Word  of  God  dwell  richly  in  the  heart  and 
home,  that  manifests  itself  in  all  the  inter- 
course and  dealing  with  fellow  man,  that  joy- 
fully labors  for  and  gives  to  all  the  interests 
and  all  the  activities  of  the  church. 

The  worldly  prosperity  of  these  good  people 
is  affecting,  as  it  does  everywhere,  the  type  and 
character  of  their  country  people.) 

**The  fraternal  orders  are  slowly  gaining 
members  among  our  people.  This  has  a 
marked  effect  on  their  spirituality.  It  is  an 
ill  omen. 

*'The  children  are  not  all  as  thoroughly  in- 
structed in  religion  as  they  were  in  former 
times.  The  commercialized  amusements  in  the 
smaller  towns  are  generally  bad.  (This  is  a 
serious    problem    with    all    country   churches. 


118       LUTHERAN  CHURCH  IN  THE  COUNTRY 

The  Lutheran  Churches  will  have  to  reckon 
with  it  wisely.  The  question  of  furnishing 
something  better  needs  to  be  seriously  studied.) 

**Then  there  is  the  language  problem.  This 
is  often  more  perplexing  in  the  country  than  in 
the  city.  It  creates  fields  for  our  Home  Mission 
Board  at  the  very  doors  of  our  strong  congre- 
gations." 

From  this  interesting  survey  of  the  situation 
in  this  great  body  of  earnest  Lutherans,  we  see 
that  the  country  problem  in  general  is  not  yet 
as  acute  among  them  as  it  is  with  many  other 
Lutherans.  The  problem,  however,  will  become 
more  and  more  serious.  They  too  need  to  study 
the  problem,  to  look  the  future  in  the  face  and 
to  prepare  for  it  bravely  and  wisely.  May  this 
little  book  help  them  also. 

One  of  the  great  good  German  synods  of  the 
Lutheran  Church  is  the  Iowa  Synod.  This 
synod  was  projected  by  the  sainted  Doctor 
Wilhelm  Loehe  after  he  found  that  he  could  no 
longer  work  with  the  Missouri  Synod.  A  little 
band  of  Loehe 's  pupils  were  sent  by  him  to 
organize  a  new  German  synod  in  harmony  with 
his  principles  and  spirit.  The  fathers  of  the 
synod  were  the  Eev.  Messrs.  Grossman,  Dein- 
doerfer  and  the  Fritschel  brothers. 

These  men  who  organized  the  synod  were 
confessionally  sound  and  conscientious.  From 
the  deeply  earnest  and  consecrated  Loehe  they 


SITUATION  AND  LETTERS  (CONTINUED)        119 

had  also  imbibed  a  spirit  of  deep,  vital  piety. 
Their  Lutheranism  was  more  than  a  profession 
of  confessional  orthodoxy.  It  was  this.  It  was 
ex  amimo  sound  in  doctrine.  But  it  was  also  a 
deep  spiritual  experience.  And  so  this  German 
synod,  like  the  Scandinavian  synods,  combined 
confessional  zeal  with  a  living,  inner  experience 
and  consecration.    Their  faith  worked  by  love. 

This  spirit  of  sound  pietism  has  character- 
ized this  great  synod  from  the  beginning.  God 
has  blessed  this  synod  richly.  Our  hope  and 
prayer  is  that  in  these  days  of  growing  worldli- 
ness  this  synod  may  retain  and  maintain  the 
spirit  of  the  fathers. 

A  minister  born  and  bred  in  an  Iowa  Synod 
parsonage,  now  occupying  a  position  of  promi- 
nence and  great  promise,  a  man  who  knows  his 
synod  from  end  to  end,  has  given  us  a  most 
satisfactory  inside  view  of  the  country  condi- 
tions. 

He  informs  us  that  a  number  of  the  oldest 
and  once  the  strongest  country  churches  are 
now  in  a  sad  state  of  decline.  He  mentions 
some  of  these  venerable  churches  by  name  and 
says:  **Thus  I  could  continue  indefinitely.  It 
is  a  fact  that  our  country  churches  are  declin- 
ing. Our  young  men  are  leaving  their  homes 
to  move  to  the  town  or  to  go  west.  Our  farmers 
are  growing  wealthy.  They  buy  all  the  land 
they  can.    Farms  are  much  larger  now  than 


120       LUTHERAN  CHURCH  IN  THE  COUNTRY 

they  were  twenty  years  ago.  With  the  aid  of 
improved  machinery  they  can  till  much  more 
soil  than  they  could  in  former  years.  So  there 
is  not  land  enough  left  for  the  younger  genera- 
tion, and  the  son  who  does  not  inherit  the 
father  ^s  estate  must  leave.  Where  there  used 
to  be  from  two  to  four  farms  there  is  now  but 
one.'' 

**The  church  in  the  smaller  town  is  on  the 
whole  more  prosperous.  We  are  losing  in  some 
places  and  gaining  rapidly  in  others.  The 
reason  for  the  difference  lies  in  the  pastor 
every  time.  The  pastor  who  uses  English  in 
all  or  part  of  his  services  as  a  rule  builds  up  a 
strong  congregation.  He  not  only  holds  what 
is  entrusted  to  him,  but  he  gains  new  members 
without  ceasing.  On  the  other  hand  the  pastor 
who  puts  language  on  the  same  basis  with 
Lutheranism  is  feeding  the  sectarian  churches 
in  his  town.  Our  synod  is  beginning  to  see 
these  conditions  and  is  taking  the  lesson  to 
heart.  Our  young  men  are  taking  up  the  work 
in  the  language  of  the  land  in  no  half-hearted 
way.  We  now  graduate  classes  from  our 
seminary  of  which  every  member  is  able  to 
preach  in  English  as  well  as  in  German. 

**To  sum  up :  In  the  Iowa  synod  the  church  in 
the  country  is  declining.  This  cannot  be  said 
in  an  unqualified  sense  of  the  church  in  our 
smaller  towns. 


SITUATION  AND  LETTERS  (CONTINUED)         121 

*'The  causes  are  the  usual  ones:  The  lure  of 
the  city;  the  impossibility  to  buy  the  high 
priced  land ;  the  attraction  of  the  cheaper  land 
in  the  west,  the  south  or  Canada.  A  prolific 
cause,  as  we  have  seen,  is  the  language  question, 
especially  in  the  small  town. 

*^May  I  illustrate  from  my  own  experience? 
Not  long  ago  I  began  to  preach  in  a  little  town 
up  the  river.  Until  I  came  to  gather  up  the 
sheep  of  our  own  fold,  a  Methodist  had  the 
field  all  to  himself.  I  preach  in  both  languages. 
I  now  have  three  times  as  many  people  in  my 
audience  as  the  Methodist  has.  If  *the  Word 
of  God  is  taught  in  its  truth  and  purity'  and  is 
brought  to  the  people  in  an  intelligible  way 
they  will  come  to  hear  it. 

**In  my  former  charge  where  I  labored  nine 
years,  using  both  languages  and  doing  things 
in  an  American  way,  we  have  a  congregation  of 
ninety  families  with  a  fine  church  and  parson- 
age. Formerly  there  was  a  little  flock  of 
twelve  or  fourteen  families. ' ' 

And  so  it  is  the  same  old  story.  The  Lu- 
theran Church  learns  new  lessons  slowly  and 
often  reluctantly.  Thank  God  she  is  learning. 
May  this  book  help  her  to  learn  more  rapidly 
and  more  effectually. 

We  take  another  backward  glance  to  old 
Pennsylvania.  This  time  we  look  to  that  part 
of  the  state  which  lies  west  of  the  Alleghenies. 


122       LUTHERAN  CHURCH  IN  THE  COUNTRY 

This  rural  section  is  not  as  purely  agricul- 
tural as  the  other  sections  referred  to  above. 
A  large  part  of  it  is  known  as  *Hhe  soft  coal 
region.''  The  one  large  central  city  is  smoky 
Pittsburgh.  In  former  years  practically  all  of 
the  great  iron  and  steel  furnaces,  foundries, 
factories  and  mills  were  crowded  along  the 
banks  of  the  three  rivers  of  Pittsburgh.  In 
those  days  the  coal  fields  were  nearly  all  in 
Allegheny  County.  By  and  by  coal  was  dis- 
covered in  Westmoreland  and  other  counties. 
Mining  towns,  with  their  unpainted  shanties 
and  general  untidy  and  forbidding  aspect 
sprung  up  like  magic  where  formerly  there  had 
been  nothing  but  peaceful,  productive  and 
happy  farmsteads. 

Coke  ovens,  mills  and  factories,  all  belching 
out  their  clouds  of  smoke  and  soot,  followed. 
The  face  of  the  country  and  the  character  of 
the  population  changed  rapidly.  Foreigners 
from  the  Eoman  Catholic  lands  of  the  old  world 
crowded  in.  They  brought  with  them  their  ig- 
norance, their  coarseness,  and  their  vices. 
Corporations  and  capitalists,  instead  of  doing 
all  they  could  to  uplift  them,  too  often  exploited 
them  and  kept  them  down.  As  usual  labor  made 
the  rich  very  rich  and  with  all  its  toil  and  dingy 
home  life  remained  poor.  Capitalists  will  one 
day  have  to  render  a  heavy  account  for  not  giv- 
ing labor  its  rightful  share  of  what  it  produces. 


SITUATION  AND  LETTERS  (CONTINUED)        123 

Capital  will  have  to  answer  for  the  millions 
of  children,  robbed  of  the  joys  of  childhood, 
forced  to  spend  what  ought  to  be  the  happy, 
laughing,  singing  springtime  of  life  in  sadness 
and  gloom.  Thou  shalt  love  thy  neighbor  as 
thyself. 

And  so  a  new  face  was  put  on  the  rural  coun- 
ties of  Western  Pennsylvania.  Farms  were 
despoiled,  youth  became  restless.  The  lure  of 
ready  and  regular  cash  drew  many  to  the  towns 
and  to  the  great  city.  The  country  school  and 
the  country  church  suffered. 

One  who  is  well  acquainted  with  the  condi- 
tion of  our  rural  Lutheran  Churches  in  Western 
Pennsylvania  writes:  *^ During  the  last  fifteen 
years  of  the  nineteenth  century  twenty-four 
leading  country  churches  show  a  net  increase  of 
five  per  cent.  During  the  first  fifteen  years  of 
the  twentieth  century  these  same  churches  show 
a  decrease  of  twelve  per  cent.  During  the 
former  period  the  Sunday  schools  of  these 
churches  increased  thirty-two  per  cent.,  during 
the  latter  they  increased  only  six  and  a  half 
per  cent. '  ' ' 

*'We  are  glad  to  note  that  the  life  in  these 
churches  is  not  dying.  During  the  former 
period  there  was  an  increase  in  benevolent  con- 
tributions including  everything  not  used  for 
local  support,  of  thirty-two  per  cent.  During 
the  latter  period  a  further  increase  that  ran  it 


124       LUTHERAN  CHURCH  IN  THE  COUNTRtj 

up  to  forty-one  per  cent/'  Our  informant  tells 
us — and  lie  knows — that  **The  country  con- 
gregations have  been  the  more  ready  to  respond 
to  the  church  for  funds. ' ' 

He  also  writes  that  **The  larger  proportion 
of  students  now  in  college  preparing  for  the 
ministry  are  from  the  country  congregations.'' 
He  rightly  calls  the  country  churches  *  *  the  base 
of  supplies"  and  believes  that  the  whole  Lu- 
theran Church  needs  to  study  her  country 
church  problem  and  to  strengthen  the  things 
that  remain  that  are  ready  to  die. 

As  to  the  remedies  he  agrees  with  our  con- 
tention throughout  this  book  that  the  one,  great, 
crying  need  is  more  consecration  in  the  mini- 
sters, more  persistent  and  enthusiastic  personal 
work  on  their  part,  and  especially  better  preach- 
ing. 

^'Then  they,  the  preachers,  need  enthusiasm 
to  win  men.  They  must  be  conscious  that  they 
have  what  the  men  need,  that  they  have  goodly 
pearls.  They  need  the  enthusiasm  of  the  sales- 
man and  insurance  agent  to  have  these  men 
take  these  pearls." 

The  ministers  need  to  gather  men  and  get 
others  to  help  them  gather  men  into  adult 
catechetical  and  Bible  classes.  Men  like  to  sit 
together,  not  to  be  quizzed  and  drilled  like  boys, 
but  where  they  can  talk  back,  express  doubts 
freely,  ask  questions  and  draw  out  answers 


SITUATION  AND  LETTERS  (CONTINUED)        125 

from  the  teachers  and  from  others.  If  once 
these  honest,  thoughtful  yeomen  learn  that  they 
can  get  light  on  the  questions  on  which  they 
speculated  between  the  plow  handles  or  on  the 
wagon  seat,  or  the  seat  of  the  mower  or  reaper, 
or  as  they  silently  went  about  their  chores,  they 
will  be  glad  to  come  to  adult  classes  and  get 
light  and  food  for  further  thought.  The  coun- 
try church  needs  the  adult  Bible  and  catecheti- 
cal class. 

And  in  the  Pittsburgh  synod  as  elsewhere, 
the  country  church  needs  to  be  made  a  factor 
in  enriching  the  social  and  civic  life  of  the  com- 
munity. Everywhere  the  country  church  should 
radiate  kindliness,  neighborliness,  community 
interest,  fellowship  and  group  enjoyment.  The 
church  should  make  the  community  life  happier, 
purer,  richer  and  better.  She  should  shed  over 
and  through  it  all  the  Spirit  of  Him  who  came 
not  to  be  ministered  unto,  but  to  minister. 
From  out  of  the  church  there  must  shine  into 
the  hearts  and  homes  and  social  gatherings  the 
joy  and  the  hope  of  the  world  to  come,  whereof 
the  sons  and  daughters  of  God  do  love  to  speak. 


CHAPTER  FOURTEEN. 

SUMMAKY  OF  THE  SITUATION. 

These  various  voices  from  diverse  divisions 
of  the  great  Lutheran  Church  help  us  to  under- 
stand our  own  country  church  conditions  and 
problems. 

The  one  outstanding  hopeful  fact  is  that  the 
Lutheran  situation  is  not  nearly  so  alarming  as 
is  that  of  the  other  churches.  To  give  but  one 
example:  In  an  Iowa  district  with  a  popula- 
tion of  one  hundred  thousand  there  were  about 
one  hundred  and  thirty  churches  of  the  Re- 
formed denominations.  Many  Methodist 
Churches  are  closed.  Nearly  one-half  of  the 
Baptist  Churches  are  dead.  An  even  half  of 
the  Congregationalist  have  deceased.  One- 
fifth  of  the  United  Brethren,  three-fourths  of 
the  Free  Methodist,  and  four-sevenths  of  the 
Adventist  Chruches  have  ceased  to  exist.  In 
the  same  district  the  Lutherans  have  estab- 
lished eleven  congregations,  not  one  of  which 
has  been  given  up. 

The  Lutheran  stock  came  originally  from  the 
staid  and  conservative  Germanic  and  Scandin- 
avion  lands.     Their  ancestry  lived  largely  in 

126 


SUMMABY  OF  THE  SITUATION  127 

the  country.  Their  American  descendants  are 
used  to  country  life.  They  know  how  to  adapt 
themselves  to  country  conditions.  They  are 
used  to  hard  work.  They  are  inured  to  hard- 
ship. They  make  successful  farmers.  Instead 
of  exhausting  they  enrich  the  soil.  Because 
they  love  the  land  they  want  to  own  it.  The 
few  that  are  renters  soon  become  owners.  But 
a  small  proportion  retire  to  the  town.  One 
trouble  is  that  they  are  insatiably  land  hungry. 
So  greedy  are  they  to  buy  ever  more  land  that 
they  stunt  their  own  better  impulses,  become 
hard  and  unsympathetic  and  refuse  to  wife  and 
children  the  relaxations  and  recreations  they 
deserve.  And  so  the  industrious  and  frugal 
elders  do  not  feel  the  craving  for  diversion  and 
excitement  that  troubles  the  native  Americans. 
The  lure  of  the  city  is  not  so  strong  among  our 
staid  and  stolid  Lutherans  as  it  is  among 
others.  Tenant  farmers  and  abandoned  farms 
are  rare  among  them.  The  church  in  their 
midst  does  not  suffer  so  much  because  of  a  de- 
pleting population. 

Conservatism  is  good,  but  ultra  conservatism 
is  bad.  Many  of  our  farmers  are  unreasonably 
and  extremely  conservative.  What  was  good 
enough  for  their  forefathers  is  good  enough  for 
them.  They  are  opposed  to  innovations  unless 
they  are  convinced  that  they  will  directly  or  in- 
directly save  or  make  more  money.    On  such 


128       LUTHERAN  CHURCH  IN  THE  COUNTRY 

grounds  alone  do  they  favor  improved  build- 
ings, machinery  and  live  stock.  For  these  rea- 
sons labor-saving  and  time-saving  devices  and 
tools  are  purchased. 

The  poor  wife  is  not  considered  a  money 
maker.  Her  domain  is  non-constructive.  She 
must  worry  along  and  wear  herself  out  with  the 
most  primitive  kitchen  and  house  equipment. 
To  give  the  men  more  time  for  money-making 
work  she  must  bend  her  back  to  the  breaking 
point  in  chopping  and  carrying  wood  and  pump- 
ing and  carrying  in  water.  Though  she  has 
abundance  of  work  in  the  house  she  must  do  the 
man's  work  of  milking  and  churning,  if  not  of 
feeding  and  working  in  the  field.  These  things 
are  unAmerican  and  ought  not  so  to  be,  except 
in  cases  of  temporary  and  dire  necessity.  The 
farm  girls  want  no  such  drudgery  in  their 
womanhood.  Who  will  blame  them  if  they 
leave  the  farm  for  the  city.  The  boys  want  no 
such  a  life  for  their  future  wives  and  they  too 
go  to  the  city. 

These  hindrances  to  country  life  and  to  the 
country  church  have  been  noted  before.  They 
need  to  be  noted  because  our  Lutheran  farmers 
are  prone  to  be  guilty. 

And  the  unfairness  of  many  farmers  in  be- 
grudging the  family  the  kind  of  clothing  that 
others  get  and  that  throws  so  much  brightness 
into  the  life  of  youth,  as  well  as  the  home  em- 


SUMMAEY  OF  THE  SITUATION  129 

1 

bellishments  and  attractions  so  much  loved 
drive  the  youth  away. 

The  young  people  have  a  right  to  a  pecuniary 
interest  on  the  farm.  They  need  to  learn  to 
earn,  to  use  and  to  save  their  own  money.  The 
industrious  young  man  has  the  right  to  his  own 
horse  and  buggy  or  auto.  We  plead  for  a  richer 
and  brighter  life  for  the  children  and  youth 
on  the  farm,  and  for  an  opportunity  to  get  a 
start  for  a  home  of  their  own  on  the  part  of 
the  faithful  children.  These  things  also  will 
help  the  country  church. 

Then  there  is  also  in  too  many  places  a  lack 
of  interest  in  neighborhood  sociability.  No 
provision  is  made  to  foster  a  community  spirit. 
People  do  not  get  together  socially.  Neither 
church  nor  school  house  are  used  for  public 
gathering.  The  district  has  no  public  hall  and 
the  village  no  rest  room  or  recreation  center. 

There  is  no  break  in  the  dull,  daily  toil.  It 
is  a  monotonous  round  of  dread  drudgery. 
The  craving  for  sociability  is  not  gratified. 
The  call  of  the  city,  its  lights  and  its  life  is 
heard.  It  strikes  a  responsive  chord.  The 
heart  of  youth  answers.  The  lively  and  most 
promising  of  the  young  people  flee  to  the  city. 
The  country  becomes  more  dull  than  before. 
Enterprise  lags.     The  church  suffers. 

As  far  as  the  country  school  is  concerned, 
Lutheran  communities  fare  better  than  many 


130       LUTHERAN  CHURCH  IN  THE  COUNTRY 

others.  Taking  them  in  the  mass  Lutheran 
people  love  education.  They  want  their  chil- 
dren to  have  at  least  a  good  common  school 
education.  As  a  rule  they  pay  their  school  tax 
more  willingly  than  they  pay  their  road  tax. 
Their  over  conservatism  may  fail  to  appreciate 
road  improvement,  but  they  are  ready  for 
school  improvement.  In  the  districts  of  the 
West  where  the  population  is  largely  Lutheran 
the  country  schools  are  the  very  best. 

Lutheran  farmers  also  favor  and  support 
academies  and  colleges.  In  the  West  they  send 
a  goodly  proportion  of  their  children  to  these 
church  schools.  The  lack  of  school  facilities 
and  opportunities  for  education  does  not  de- 
populate Lutheran  communities  as  it  does 
others. 

As  a  class  the  Lutheran  ministers  in  the 
country  will  probably  average  above  those  of 
other  churches.  As  noted  above  in  many  coun- 
try districts  there  are  only  too  many  uneducated 
or  poorly  educated  ministers  in  the  Eeformed 
Churches.  In  some  sections  not  one  out  of 
four  has  had  a  course  in  a  theological 
seminary.  Such  so-called  ministers  preach 
thinking  people  out  of  the  church.  In  the 
Lutheran  Churches  it  is  a  rare  thing  to  find  a 
minister  who  has  not  had  a  full  seminary 
course.  Most  of  them  were  college  graduates 
before  they  went  to  seminary.     Our  country 


SUMMARY  OF  THE  SITUATION  131 

churches  are  not  suffering  from  ignorant  min- 
isters as  many  others  are.  People  who  go  to 
the  Lutheran  Church  get  food  for  thought,  in- 
sight into  God's  dealings  with  men,  His  means 
and  methods  of  grace,  His  way  of  salvation. 
The  Lutheran  preacher  opens  the  scripture  to 
his  people.  In  this  important  matter  our  coun- 
try churches  are  better  off  than  many  others. 

While  we  have  all  too  many  absentee  preach- 
ers among  us  also,  we  believe  that  our  propor- 
tion is  much  smaller  than  that  of  many  others. 
Such  preachers  ought  to  be  the  rarest  excep- 
tion. Country  congregations  need  a  seelsorger 
in  their  midst. 

Many  of  our  country  pastors  are  too  poorly 
paid.  Among  the  Germans  especially  the 
salary  is  often  shamefully  small.  We  have 
often  wondered  how  these  ministers  are  able  to 
feed  and  clothe  their  large  families.  It  is 
praiseworthy  in  a  minister  to  be  willing  to 
sacrifice  for  his  people,  his  church  and  his  Lord. 
All  honor  to  the  pioneer  preachers  who  shared 
the  hardships  of  the  new  settlers  in  the  clear- 
ings and  on  the  wind-swept  prairies.  All  honor 
to  the  home  missionaries  who  hunted  up,  visited 
and  ministered  to  the  lonely  ones  scattered  so 
widely  as  sheep  without  a  shepherd.  The 
church  at  large  has  never  fully  appreciated  the 
privations,  the  poverty,  the  hardships  and  the 
sacrifices  of  the  travelling  preachers  who  car- 


132        LUTHERAN  CHURCH  IN  THE  COUNTRY 

ried  the  word  and  sacraments  to  the  lonely- 
settlers.  God  has  written  them  down  in  his 
book  of  remembrance.  There  are  those  who 
are  doing  such  service  today  without  promise 
of  salary.  They  are  carrying  God's  promises, 
his  wine  and  his  milk  without  money  and  with- 
out price.  Many  of  these  men  deserve  to  be 
counted  in  among  the  noble  army  of  martyrs. 
Their  works  do  follow  them. 

But  in  the  regular  ministry  God  has  or- 
dained that  they  that  preach  the  Gospel  shall 
live  of  the  Gospel.  God  has  said  of  his  min- 
isters that  the  laborer  is  worthy  of  his  hire. 

It  certainly  should  not  be  expected  of  a 
pastor  who  faithfully  ministers  to  a  parish  of 
well  to  do  farmers  that  he  should  be  compelled 
to  live  upon  a  salary  so  meagre  that  he  cannot 
properly  clothe  his  family  or  provide  them  with 
the  needed  comforts  in  the  home.  Where  the 
people  are  able  to  pay  it  is  their  bounden 
duty  to  give  him  enough  to  equip  himself  with 
the  books  and  periodicals  that  he  needs  in  order 
to  keep  up  with  the  time.  He  and  his  family 
have  a  right  to  have  music  in  the  home  and 
money  for  music  lessons.  He  has  a  right  to  a 
salary  sufficient  to  give  all  his  children  a  good 
education.  He  has  a  right  to  provide  against 
sickness,  accident,  death  and  old  age  in  a  good 
life  insurance  company.  To  his  well  to  do 
farmers  he  ministers  richly  in  spiritual  things. 


SUMMAEY  OF  THE  SITUATION  133 

They  should  gladly,  liberally  minister  to  him  of 
their  temporal  things. 

Our  Lutheran  farmers  are  not  poor.  If  they 
are  in  the  beginning  they  do  not  remain  poor. 
But  too  many  of  them  are  selfish  and  miserly. 
They  do  not  like  to  give.  They  have  never  ex- 
perienced the  joy  of  grateful  giving.  They  pay 
their  pastors  a  shamefully  small  salary.  They 
thus  cripple  him  in  efficiency.  They  keep  him 
from  doing  his  best  work.  They  hinder  and 
hamper  their  church.  The  country  church  suf- 
fers because  their  pastor  is  so  poorly  paid. 

For  the  same  reasons  the  church  building 
and  grounds  are  often  unattractive  and  shabby. 
lA.n  ugly  building  does  not  attract.  The  build- 
ing ought  to  be  churchly,  roomy,  bright  and 
well  kept.  A  dilapidated  '* meeting  house"  in 
a  wilderness  of  weeds  will  never  attract  the 
community.  God  made  His  temple  the  most 
beautiful  building  of  the  land.  God  loves 
beauty.  He  is  prodigal  with  it.  He  scatters  it 
over  the  face  of  nature  in  the  flowers  by  the 
wayside,  in  field  and  in  forest.  He  paints  it  in 
the  sunset  sky.  He  decks  the  mighty  heavens 
in  diamonds.  His  house  in  the  country  ought 
to  be  beautiful. 

The  road  to  the  church  ought  to  be  the  very 
best  possible.  There  ought  to  be  sheds  for  the 
horses,  not  for  the  members*  horses  alone,  but 
also  for  the  teams  of  the  strangers  and  visitors. 


134       LUTHERAN  CHURCH  IN  THE  COUNTRY 

All  these  things  help  the  country  church.  They 
can  be  had.  Where  there 's  a  will  there  *s  a  way. 
The  pastor  needs  to  point  the  way  and  lead  the 
people  to  walk  in  it. 

The  country  church-yard  should  be  a  place  of 
beauty  and  of  peace.  It  should  be  kept  neat, 
clean  of  dry  grass  and  weeds,  and  a  garden  of 
the  choicest  flowers.  What  a  disgrace  to  the 
church  is  a  wilderness  grave  yard.  It  hurts 
the  country  church.  All  these  externals  count. 
A  God  who  loves  beauty  counts  them.  They 
count  in  any  community.  Ugliness  repels, 
beauty  attracts. 


Part  3Fitte) 

(Smmwlii  far  €oitntrs  Paaton 


**To  the  Law  and  to  tlie  Testimony;  if  they 
speak  not  according  to  this  Word  there  is  no 
light  in  them. ' ' — Isaiah. 

' '  Thus  saith  the  Lord :  Stand  ye  in  the  ways 
and  see  and  ask  for  the  old  paths,  where  is  the 
good  way  and  walk  therein  and  ye  shall  find 
rest  for  your  souls/ ^ — Jeremiah, 

**That  we  henceforth  be  no  more  children, 
tossed  to  and  fro  and  carried  about  with  every 
wind  of  doctrine,  by  the  slight  of  men  and  cun- 
ning craftiness  whereby  they  lie  in  wait  to  de- 
ceive. ' ' — Paul. 

**  Believe  not  every  spirit,  but  try  the  spirits, 
whether  they  are  of  God,  because  many  false 
prophets  have  gone  out  into  the  world/' — John. 

**For  the  time  will  come  when  they  will  not 
endure  sound  doctrine;  but  after  their  own 
lusts  they  shall  heap  to  themselves  teachers, 
having  itching  ears;  and  they  shall  turn  away 
their  ears  from  the  truth  and  shall  be  turned 
unto  fables. ' ' — Paul. 

'  ^  For  the  space  of  three  years  I  ceased  not  to 
warn  every  one  night  and  day  with  tears.'' — 
Paul. 


CHAPTER  FIFTEEN. 

BIGHT  AND  WRONG  REMEDIES. 

As  we  have  seen,  the  spiritual  situation  in 
many  large  areas  of  the  open  country,  is  cer- 
tainly serious.  A  heathenizing  process  is  going 
on.  In  many  country  towns  the  same  danger- 
ous tendencies  are  at  work.  There  are  serious 
problems  before  the  American  country  church. 
If  the  critical  conditions  are  not  faced  and 
rightly  remedied,  then  woe  be  to  our  land. 

The  attention  of  the  better  part  of  the  Re- 
formed churches  is  being  aroused.  The  alarm 
has  been  sounded.  The  surveys  are  a  trumpet 
call  to  the  Christian  conscience.  The  literature 
on  the  subject  is  increasing  with  leaps  and 
bounds.  All  sorts  of  remedies  are  proposed. 
Some  good  things  are  suggested.  These  we 
ought  to  consider.  Many  foolish  things  are 
recommended.  These  we  must  reject.  We 
Lutherans  also  should  ask:  *' Watchman,  what 
of  the  night  r' 

We  are  grateful  for  the  assurance  that  our 
situation  is  not  nearly  so  serious  as  is  that  of 
others.  But  there  are  signs  and  omens  in  our 
sky  also.     We  do  well  to  know  our  dangers. 

137 


138        LUTHERAN  CHURCH  IN  THE  COUNTRY 

We  do  better  when  we  safeguard  ourselves 
against  them.  We  do  best  when  we  make  future 
dangers  impossible. 

In  the  secular,  sociological  and  Eeformed 
church  literature,  one  of  the  prime  agencies 
urged  for  saving  the  country  church,  is  the 
preaching  of  sermons  that  will  show  how  farm- 
ing may  be  made  more  profitable.  The  pulpit 
is  to  be  turned  into  a  platform  to  teach  agri- 
culture. The  gospel  of  intensive  and  scientific 
farming  is  to  take  the  place  of  the  old  time 
preaching  of  sin  and  grace,  of  redemption  and 
salvation,  of  soul  saving,  and  life  cleansing. 
Instead  of  going  to  church  to  be  made  wise  unto 
salvation,  to  be  made  holier  and  happier,  men 
are  to  go  to  church  to  regenerate  the  soil  and 
the  live  stock.  Preachers  are  to  restudy  and  re- 
introduce the  message  of  the  German  Rational- 
ists of  a  century  ago.  They,  with  their  worldly 
wisdom,  preached  the  country  churches  of 
Germany  empty.  These  American  fools  are  to 
bring  back  their  old,  empty,  unsatisfying  mes- 
sage and  preach  our  country  churches  full! 

No,  no,  we  agree  with  our  Joint  Synod  friend 
quoted  above  when  he  says:  *^To  teach  agri- 
culture and  farm  life  from  the  pulpit  is  bosh 
and  nonsense.  There  would  be  as  much  sense 
in  preaching  strategy  and  ballistics  to  a  mili- 
tary congregation.''     The  Lutheran  preacher 


EIGHT  AND  WRONG  REMEDIED  139 

must  still  preach  the  preaching  that  God  com- 
mands him. 

This,  however,  does  not  mean  that  ignorance 
of  country  life  and  work  is  a  virtue.  Every 
good  pastor  ought  to  be  interested  in  the  things 
that  interest  his  people.  It  is  highly  commend- 
able in  the  pastor  that  he  inform  himself  in 
the  things  that  engage  his  people  six  days  in 
the  week.  We  earnestly  advise  every  country 
pastor  and  every  prospective  one  to  master  at 
least  the  elementary  principles  of  the  science 
of  agriculture.  If  it  is  possible  without  injur- 
ing the  duties  of  his  calling  he  ought  to  take  a 
short  course  in  an  agricultural  college.  Not 
that  he  should  take  such  knowledge  into  the 
pulpit,  except  to  use  it  in  the  way  of  illustration 
and  application.  But  it  would  make  him  a  more 
interesting  friend  and  companion  among  his 
people.  It  would  help  him  to  commend  life  in 
the  country.  It  would  help  him  to  keep  some  of 
his  best  young  people  from  going  to  the  city.  It 
would  give  him  more  influence  in  advising 
parents  to  send  their  boys  and  girls  who  expect 
to  make  the  country  their  home,  to  agricultural 
college. 

It  would  make  himself  more  contented  in  the 
country.  If  capable  he  might  occasionally 
speak  in  the  school  house  or  public  hall  on  a 
week  night  on  subjects  of  interest  to  country 
life.    It  would  enable  him  to  bring  good  exten- 


140       LUTHERAN  CHURCH  IN  THE  COUNTRY 

sion  lecturers  into  the  neighborhood.  It  would 
enable  him  to  encourage  and  take  part  in 
farmers'  institutes.  Without  interfering  with 
the  high  and  holy  duties  of  his  office  he  might 
thus  do  much  to  make  the  life  of  his  people  on 
the  farm  and  in  the  home  richer  and  happier. 
And  so  he  would  materially  help  to  strengthen 
his  country  church. 

Understanding  the  psychology  of  the  rural 
mind,  the  preacher  should  ever  warn  his  people 
lovingly  and  patiently,  against  the  peculiar 
dangers  to  which  they  are  ever  subject.  This 
he  should  do  publicly  and  from  house  to  house. 
In  this  way  he  might  save  some  from  settling 
down  into  that  stubborn  indivualism,  that 
stingy  conservatism  and  that  selfish  unfairness 
to  his  family,  so  common  among  farmers.  By 
saving  them  from  themselves  he  might  save 
them  for  his  church  and  for  his  God. 

Many  absurdly  foolish  things  have  been  writ- 
ten and  are  being  preached  to  preachers  all 
over  the  country  as  to  the  duty  of  the  minister 
to  furnish  recreation  for  the  community.  Many 
self-constituted  counsellors  advise  the  turning 
of  the  church  into  a  playhouse,  the  making  of 
the  congregation  a  corporation  for  furnishing 
public  amusement  and  the  changing  of  the  min- 
ister of  the  gospel  into  a  clown  who  is  to  fur- 
nish fun  for  the  whole  country  side. 

To  all  such  suggestions  the  Lutheran  minister 


BIGHT  AND  WRONG  REMEDIES  141 

can  give  only  an  indignant  and  an  emphatic  No. 
He  has  too  high  an  appreciation  of  his  own 
holy  calling  and  office.  He  has  too  sacred  a 
conception  of  the  mission  of  the  church,  which 
is  the  Bride  of  Christ. 

And  yet  the  true  minister  does  have  compas- 
sion on  the  multitude.  He  does  realize  the  all 
too  common  monotony  and  drudgery  of  country 
life.  He  does  bear  in  mind  that  our  good  God 
has  given  to  all  normal  people  a  social  instinct, 
a  desire  for  society,  a  longing  for  the  joys  of 
social  fellowship  and  recreation.  The  good 
pastor  knows  that  these  human  impulses  are  es- 
pecially strong  in  the  young.  He  does  want 
to  make  his  people  happier  as  well  as  better. 
He  does  want  to  check  and  weaken  the  lure  of 
the  city. 

What  can  he  do  without  lowering  the  dignity 
of  his  office  or  lessening  his  influence  as  a  seel- 
sorger? 

He  cannot  turn  his  church,  which  has  been 
consecrated  for  the  worship  of  God,  for  the 
preaching  of  the  word  and  the  administering 
of  the  sacraments,  into  an  amusement  center. 
But  he  can  work  for  a  commodious  parish 
house  or  public  hall.  Not  as  pastor  of  his 
church  but  as  a  citizen  he  can  encourage  halls 
for  the  public,  with  well  selected  libraries,  read- 
ing, recreation  and  rest  rooms.  He  can  encour- 
age and  work  for  and  get  his  people  as  citizens 


142       LUTHERAN  CHURCH  IN  THE  COUNTRY 

and  neighbors  to  work  for  public  gatherings, 
lectures,  musicals,  singing  schools,  spelling 
bees,  literary  and  debating  clubs  and  any  other 
form  of  innocent  and  uplifting  public  entertain- 
ment. He  ought  to  be  a  nature-student.  It 
would  be  a  public  benefit  if  he  could  and  would 
give  familiar  public  talks  on  birds  and  flowers 
and  trees.  The  moving  picture  has  immense 
possibilities  within  itself.  It  can  be  made  a 
mighty  instrument  for  entertainment  and  in- 
struction as  well  as  for  moral  and  spiritual  up- 
lift. We  hope  the  day  is  coming  when  every 
country  community  will  have  its  own  first  class 
machine,  with  none  but  pure  and  elevating  films. 
What  a  welcome  weekly  rift  it  might  make  in 
the  otherwise  monotonous  life  of  the  farm 
house.  And  why  should  not  the  country  pastor 
encourage  and  help  toward  this  and  the  other 
uplifting  agencies?  Let  the  church  people,  as 
citizens  and  neighbors,  provide,  encourage, 
manage  and  control  the  neighborhood  joys  and 
festivities.  The  right  kind  of  social  pleasures 
cannot  be  other  than  helpful  to  the  country 
church. 


CHAPTER  SIXTEEN. 

RIGHT  AND  WRONG  REMEDIES    (ContiflUed). 

Another  remedy  for  weakness  and  decline  in 
the  country  church  that  is  loudly  and  fre- 
quently urged  is  a  merging  of  the  various 
churches  in  a  community  into  one.  The  at- 
tractive goal  that  is  presented  is  one  church 
instead  of  many  weak  ones.  This  strong  church 
would  be  efficient  in  every  direction.  It  could 
**hire"  a  high-priced,  eloquent,  drawing 
preacher.  He  and  his  family  would  culti- 
vate culture  and  command  influence.  Needed 
lay-helpers,  efficient  social  workers,  Sunday 
school  experts,  soulful  singers,  and  other  ser- 
viceable attractions  could  be  secured.  And  so 
everybody  would  flock  to  the  one  attractive, 
strong,  central  church.  There  would  be  no  more 
stay-at-homes.  The  community  would  become 
prosperous  harmonious  and  happy.  Truly  a 
fetching  vision,  a  consummation  devoutly  to  be 
wished  for. 

But  can  it  bef  And  would  it  work?  Aye, 
there's  the  rub.  Such  Utopias  have  often  been 
worked  out  on  paper  and  word-painted  on  the 
platform.     Where  have  they  been  practically 

143 


144        LUTHEEAN  CHUBCH  IN  THE  COUNTRY 

realized  without  a  sacrifice  of  conviction  and 
devotion  to  the  truth,  without  a  lowering  of  the 
spiritual  life? 

We  can  conceive  of  cases  where  village  and 
country  churches  ought  to  combine.  There  are 
churches  that  claim  that  distinctive  doctrines 
are  of  no  importance,  that  the  things  that  di- 
vide churches  are  unessential,  that  it  makes  no 
difference  what  one  believes,  that  after  all, 
doctrines  are  mere  opinions,  that  one  opinion 
is  as  good  as  another. 

On  the  ground  of  their  own  assertions  such 
liberal  churches  are  self-confessed  promoters 
of  causeless  division.  Convictions  are  wrong. 
Convictions  they  do  not  have.  For  baseless 
opinion  they  divide  the  body  of  Christ.  On 
their  own  showing,  all  such  liberal,  broad,  ac- 
commodating churches  ought  to  welcome  every 
opportunity  to  disband  and  merge  with  any 
neighbor  church.  If  they  are  unwilling  to  do 
this  they  convict  themselves  of  insincerity  in 
their  boasting  of  charity  for  the  **  opinions '* 
that  prevail  in  the  adjoining  church.  Where 
there  is  no  principle  at  stake,  where  no  convic- 
tions of  truth  need  to  be  given  up  there  ought 
to  be  church  mergings. 

In  like  manner  the  so-called  churches  that 
lay  themselves  out  on  some  one  idea  and  make 
a  hobby  of  it,  but  diifer  in  modes  and  methods 
only,  have  no  valid  ground  for  remaining  sepa- 


EIGHT  AND  WRONG  REMEDIES    (CONTINUED )       145 

rate  from  each  other.  Such  are  the  immersion- 
ist  sects,  the  holiness  sects,  and  the  wild  revival 
sects.  All  immersionists  ought  to  combine.  So 
ought  all  holiness  people.  All  extreme  revival- 
ists ought  to  be  in  one  organization.  And  yet 
we  ofte^'  find  two  or  more  organizations  or 
groups  of  each  kind  in  a  small  town  or  country 
community.  When  thus  divided  into  warring 
bands  that  try  to  annihilate  each  other  they  are 
the  most  wicked  sectarians  of  all. 

Many  of  the  Eeformed  churches,  on  their 
own  showing,  ought  to  unite  with  each  other. 
Where  it  is  only  a  name  that  is  contended  for, 
it  should  be  willingly  dropped  for  a  stronger, 
more  economical  and  more  efficient  community 
church. 

All  three  of  the  above  named  possible  merg- 
ers are  desirable.  They  would  help  to  solve 
the  church  problem  in  non-Lutheran  communi- 
ties. We  are  always  glad  to  learn  of  such  com- 
binations, provided  always  that  they  do  not 
weaken  faith  and  spiritual  life. 

What  should  be  the  Lutheran  attitude  to- 
ward this  proposed  solution  of  the  country 
church  problem?  Divisions  and  schisms  among 
Lutherans  are  also  sinful.  Wherever  there  is 
a  Lutheran  Church  that  is  hostile  against  an- 
other Lutheran  Church  someone  fias  sinned, 
and  is  sinning  still  It  may  Be  tfile  fault  of  the 
people  now  in  one  or  both  cJlureheSw    It  may 


146       LUTHERAN  CHURCH  IN  THE  COUNTRY 

be  their  ancestors  that  are  to  blame.  The  un- 
happy division  may  be  an  inheritance  from  a 
former  generation. 

On  general  principles  it  is  wrong  to  erect  a 
Lutheran  altar  against  a  Lutheran  altar.  We 
have  seen  three  English  Lutheran  Churches 
within  a  stone 's  throw  of  each  other  in  the  open 
country.  Such  a  situation  is  a  shame  and  a 
scandal. 

And  yet  there  may  be  conditions  that  justify 
the  planting  of  a  new  Lutheran  Church  where 
there  is  one  already  established. 

The  language  question  may  make  it  neces- 
sary. Where  the  old  church  tenaciously  holds 
on  to  a  foreign  tongue,  will  admit  no  English 
services  and  so  robs  the  children  and  youth  of 
having  the  Gospel  in  the  only  language  which 
they  can  understand  and  where  the  youth  is 
being  lost  from  the  church  there  an  English  Lu- 
theran Church  has  a  right  to  come.  The  saving 
of  the  children  to  the  church  is  more  important 
than  the  saving  of  a  foreign  tongue.  Too  many 
tragic  facts  establish  this  contention. 

Along  this  line  our  Norwegian  friends  are 
facing  a  great  opportunity  and  a  great  respon- 
sibility. When  the  coming  great  union  goes 
into  effect  there  will  be  scores  of  towns  and 
communities  where  two  or  three  of  their 
churches  are  close  together.  Without  hesita- 
tion or  dispute  one  should  speedily  become  an 


RIGHT  AND  WEONG  REMEDIES    (CONTINUED)       147 

English  Lutheran  Church.  If  the  Norwegians 
will  not  or  cannot  effect  this  happy  change, 
then  let  them  not  complain  if  other  Lutheran 
bodies  plant  English  churches  in  these  towns 
and  so  save  the  coming  generation  to  the  faith 
of  the  I^eformation. 

It  may  also  be  that  there  is  in  the  town  or 
neighborhood  a  church  that  is  Lutheran  in 
name  only.  It  may  be  one  of  that  unionistic 
type  whose  pulpit  is  open  to  teachers  who  stand 
for  a  faith  foreign  to  that  of  the  Lutheran 
Church,  whose  communion  altar  is  open  to 
those  who  deny  the  Lutheran  doctrine  of  the 
Lord's  supper.  It  may  be  a  church  where  dis- 
tinctively  Lutheran  doctrines  are  kept  in  the 
background  if  not  perverted  to  please  the  non- 
Lutheran  neighbors.  Union  revivals  may  be 
taking  the  place  of  careful  catechizing.  The 
whole  spirit  and  atmosphere  may  be  Eeformed 
instead  of  Lutheran.  The  pastor  may  be  a 
member  of  a  secret  order  and  take  part  in  the 
services  and  doings  of  a  Christless  lodge. 

There  may  be  in  that  church  and  in  that  com- 
munity people  to  whom  the  Lutheran  faith  and 
worship  and  spirit  and  practice  are  very  dear. 
To  these  people  the  Lutheran  confessions  and 
the  worship  and  life  that  grow  out  of  them 
mean  something.  They  have  conscientious  con- 
victions on  these  matters.  They  want  for  them- 
selves and  for  their  children  a  church  which  is 


148        LUTHERAN  CHURCH  IN   THE  COUNTRY 

Lutheran  in  doctrine,  in  practice  and  in  life. 
They  have  a  right  to  have  such  a  church.  It  is 
their  duty  to  get  it.  If  they  cannot  make  the 
church  already  there  Lutheran  in  fact  as  well 
as  in  name,  it  is  their  sacred  duty  to  establish 
there  a  church  that  can  be  for  them  a  real 
spiritual  home. 

For  these  reasons  it  may  be  necessary  to 
have  more  than  one  Lutheran  Church  in  a  small 
town  or  country  neighborhood,  but  to  erect 
altar  against  altar  for  motives  of  synodical  am- 
bition or  pride  or  jealousy  or  rivalry  is  a  dis- 
grace and  a  sin.  He  is  not  a  good  Lutheran 
who  puts  his  synod  or  organization  above  the 
Lutheran  faith. 

In  the  country  and  in  the  country  town  con- 
tiguous Lutheran  Churches  ought  to  unite 
wherever  they  can  do  so  on  a  sound  confes- 
sional basis.  In  many  places  this  would  solve 
a  critical  country  church  problem.  A  better 
understanding,  a  better  spirit  of  unity,  a  closer 
and  more  happy  cooperation,  a  federation  that 
will  federate,  these  are  great  Lutheran  needs 
everywhere.  They  are  especially  needed  in  the 
country  and  village. 

It  goes  without  saying  that  the  Lutheran 
Church  cannot  even  consider  any  proposed 
uniting  with  neighboring  Eeformed  churches. 
Such  a  movement  is  altogether  out  of  the  ques- 
tion.   It  need  not  be  considered  here. 


CHAPTEE  SEVENTEEN. 
REMEDIES  (Continued). 

We  liave  admitted  all  along  that  there  is 
much  wrong  with  the  country  church  in  general. 
The  widespread  interest,  investigation  and 
casting  about  for  betterment  are  not  without 
cause.    There  is  cause  for  serious  concern. 

"We  as  Lutherans  do  not  want  to  close  our 
eyes  to  the  conditions.  We  also  want  to  know 
where  there  is  wrong  and  what  it  is.  We  are 
not  worthy  of  our  name  as  Lutheran  Christians 
if  we  do  not  seriously  try  to  right  what  is 
wrong. 

But  we  are  not  ready  to  fall  in  with  every 
proposed  move  for  betterment.  We  believe 
not  every  spirit.  We  try  the  spirits.  We 
prove  all  things.  We  know  that  our  days  are 
days  of  testing  and  sifting.  We  know  that 
many  false  prophets  and  teachers  and  expedi- 
ents and  experiments  are  abroad.  We  know 
that  the  very  elect  are  in  danger  of  being  de- 
ceived. 

A  new  combination  of  Protestant  leaders  and 
churches  has  been  organized.  It  is  one  of  the 
greatest  of  its  kind  ever  organized.     It  has 

149 


150       LUTHERAN  CHURCH  IN  THE  COUNTRY 

wisdom  and  wealth  at  its  back.  It  is  closely 
related  to  and  influenced  by  the  Eeligious  Edu- 
cation Association.*  It  is  called  the  *^ Federa- 
tion of  the  Churches  of  Christ  in  America. '* 
It  is  producing  and  circulating  a  large  litera- 
ture. It  is  giving  much  attention  to  the  country 
church.  One  of  its  books  deals  with  religious 
conditions  in  Vermont.  Its  joint  authors  are 
Charles  Otis  Gill  and  Gifford  Pinchot.  After 
describing  the  deplorable  condition  of  the  coun- 
try churches,  it  recommends  among  other 
things  the  adoption  of  a  social  service  program 
and  a  state-wide  and  country-wide  organiza- 
tion among  the  churches  for  the  promotion  of 
the  general  social  welfare. 

Social  service  is  to  be  the  great  panacea  for 
all  the  ills  that  afflict  the  church  in  country  as 
well  as  city.  The  emphasis  is  on  the  word 
Social.  We  used  to  speak  and  hear  of  the 
saving  Gospel,  it  is  now  the  social  Gospel.  We 
used  to  read  of  religious  revival,  it  is  now  social 
revival.  The  church  of  the  past  from  the  days 
of  Christ,  of  the  apostles,  was  concerned  with 
the  spiritual  redemption  of  man ;  it  is  now  his 
social  redemption.  Heretofore  the  redemption 
and  regeneration  of  the  soul  was  precious. 
Now  it  is  social  regeneration.  Formerly  the 
church  had  much  to  say  of  the  world  to  come; 

♦See  "Problems  and  Possibilities,"  pp.  137-147. 


REMEDIES   (continued)  151 

her  conversation  was  in  Heaven.  Tlie  cliurcli 
like  her  dear  Master  preached  much  of  the 
Kingdom  of  God.  She  conceived  it  and  set  it 
forth  as  a  Kingdom  of  Grace  here,  a  kingdom 
within  the  hearts  of  God's  children,  a  kingdom 
that  is  not  meat  and  drink  but  righteousness 
and  peace  and  joy  in  the  Holy  Ghost.  She 
taught  that  the  Kingdom  of  Grace  is  fostered 
in  the  church  and  that  it  is  the  gateway  to  the 
Kingdom  of  Glory. 

Now  according  to  Rauschenbusch  and  his 
school  the  Kingdom  of  God  is  an  ethical  social 
order.  It  is  of  this  world  and  for  this  world. 
It  consists  in  social  well-geing.  It  is  a  Utopia 
w^here  love  and  brotherhood  shall  reign  and 
where  social  justice  shall  permeate  all  the  re- 
lations of  life. 

It  is  the  church's  business  and  mission  to 
build  such  a  social  and  materialistic  kingdom. 
She  is  to  create  a  new  social  order.  The  old 
Gospel  is  to  be  set  aside.  Its  place  is  to  be 
taken  by  a  philosophy  of  bread  and  butter  and 
recreation.  That  bread  is  to  be  eaten  without 
too  much  sweat  of  the  brow.  The  salvation 
that  man  needs  is  a  betterment  of  his  environ- 
ment. When  this  is  done  man  will  be  as  good 
as  he  need  be. 

The  new  social  program  is  recently  set  forth 
in  a  drastic  manner  in  The  Northwestern  Chris- 
tian Advocate.    Here  it  is  in  substance :    **Be- 


152        LUTHERAN  CHURCH  IN  THE  COUNTRY 

sides  visiting  and  praching  the  country  parson 
is  to  interest  the  people  of  the  countryside  in 
clubs.  He  is  to  tell  'Squire  Andrews  just  why 
that  roan  calf  is  to  be  fed  on  baked  beans  for 
a  year.  He  is  to  be  a  divinely  commissioned 
busybody.  He  will  organize  the  children  to 
clear  the  village  street  of  weeds.  He  will  head 
the  agitation  against  the  deadly  drinking  cup, 
manage  the  baseball  team,  introduce  a  painless 
dehorner,  survey  Thompson's  lower  eighty,  and 
arrange  a  vacuum  cleaner  exhibition.  He  is 
the  beneficent  genius  of  the  country  side.  If 
Mr.  Thompson's  wheat  runs  only  fifty-five 
pounds  to  the  bushel  and  if  Mr.  Eobinson  ships 
a  carload  of  hogs  to  market  just  after  the  price 
has  dropped  forty  cents  it  is  because  they  did 
not  consult  the  man  who  is  trained  to  save  their 
crops  as  well  as  their  souls." 

In  the  new  teaching  sin  is  no  longer  a  disease 
of  the  heart,  a  fault  in  human  nature,  a  guilt 
that  God  must  condemn;  sin  is  social,  it  is  a 
wrong  arrangement  of  economic  social  condi- 
tions. As  Prof.  Patten  says:  *'Sin  is  misery, 
misery  is  poverty  and  the  cure  of  poverty  is 
income."  The  love  of  money  then  instead  of 
being  the  root  of  all  evil  is  the  hope  of  society 
and  its  getting  will  save  humanity.  Oh,  the  lies 
that  the  human  heart  is  prone  to  believe! 
Surely  it  is  deceitful  above  all  things  and  des- 
perately wicked. 


REMEDIES   (continued)  153 

In  the  country  the  social  propaganda  wants 
more  scientific  and  successful  farming.  It 
wants  better  roads,  better  markets,  better 
prices  for  produce.  It  wants  more  sanitary 
and  more  convenient  and  better  equipped 
homes.  It  wants  less  drudgery  for  women  and 
children.  It  wants  more  diversion  or  recrea- 
tion for  the  lonely  toilers  upon  the  land.  It 
wants  better  schools  and  more  attractive  church 
buildings  and  services.  We  have  acknowledged 
that  all  of  these  things  are  in  themselves  good 
and  desirable.  We  most  sincerely  hope  and 
pray  that  every  country  community  and  every 
dilapidated  and  straggling  country  town  might 
have  an  effective  awakening  on  the  desirability 
and  need  of  all  such  things. 

But  are  they  the  remedy  that  will  save 
the  country  church  f  Are  our  country  churches 
to  quit  going  to  Christ  and  Paul  for  guid- 
ance? Are  they  to  turn  away  from  Augustine 
and  Luther  and  Wichern  and  Harms  and 
Passavant  and  listen  to  Ely  and  Peabody 
and  Rauschenbusch  and  Shailer  Matthews 
and  Douglass  and  Faunce  and  such  other 
rationalistic  reformers  who  would  cure  the  ills 
of  the  soul  by  satisfying  the  wants  of  the  body? 

We  Lutherans  know  a  more  excellent  way. 
We  do  not  begin  at  the  wrong  end.  We  do  not 
build  the  roof  garden  before  we  lay  the  founda- 
tion.    We  do  not  expect  to  gather  grapes  of 


154       LUTHEEAN  CHUKCH  IN  THE  COUNTRY 

thorns  and  figs  of  thistles.  Our  first  care  is  to 
have  good  trees,  and  only  then  do  we  look  for 
good  fruit.  We  want  to  make  new  men,  and 
then  we  look  to  them  to  make  new  laws  and 
bring  in  the  new  conditions. 

But  the  new  men  need  instruction.  They 
need  to  be  shown  what  the  needs  are  and  how 
they  are  to  be  remedied.  The  pastor  himself 
often  needs  to  be  shown.  He  needs  to  know 
that  his  church  has  looked  into  all  these  social 
problems  and  has  tried  to  work  out  a  solution 
that  solves.  He  needs  to  study  Wichern  and 
Fliedner  and  Loehe  and  Oberlin  and  Passavant 
and  Ohl.  He  also  needs  to  go  back  and  study 
Luther's  address  to  the  Christian  Nobility. 
Then  he  needs  to  apply  the  principles  of  the 
Inner  Mission  to  his  church  in  the  country  or 
small  town. 

He  must  always  bear  in  mind  that  he  and  his 
church  are  not  there  to  be  served  by  the  com- 
munity but  to  serve  the  community.  The 
church  is  the  bride.  Like  her  Bridegroom  she 
came  not  to  be  ministered  unto  but  to  minister. 
Like  Him  she  must  have  compassion  on  the 
multitude.  In  all  their  afflictions  she  must  feel 
afflicted.  She  is  to  do  works  of  mercy  not  in 
order  that  by  so  doing  she  may  save  herself 
but  she  does  them  because  she  has  been  saved. 
Her  works  are  not  works  for  merit,  but  works 
of  grateful  love.     Because  her  Lord  and  Re- 


KEMEDIES   (continued)  155 

deemer  has  loved  her  with  an  everlasting  love 
and  with  loving  kindness  drew  her  to  Himself 
therefore  she  says :  What  shall  I  render  to  my 
God  for  all  His  benefits  to  me? 

The  pastor  and  his  people  by  thus  serving 
Christ  in  His  needy  ones  become  burning  and 
shining  lights  in  the  midst  of  a  crooked  and 
perverse  generation.  By  walking  as  children 
of  light  they  become  the  light  of  the  world. 
Others  see  their  good  works  and  are  led  to 
glorify  the  Father  in  Heaven.  Such  Christian 
social  service  is  the  church's  credential.  It  is 
her  powerful  apologetic. 

Let  the  pastor  of  the  country  church  then 
preach  sin  and  grace,  law  and  Gospel,  repent- 
ance and  faith.  By  doing  this  with  prayerful- 
ness  and  all  power  he  will  bring  men  to  true 
penitence  and  faith.  They  will  thus  become 
new  creatures  in  Christ  Jesus.  The  pastor  will 
encourage  the  people  and  lead  them  to  look 
after  poor  people  in  the  community  whether 
they  belong  to  his  church  or  not.  As  a  matter 
of  course  no  church  member  will  be  allowed  to 
suffer  for  want  of  help.  The  sick  will  be  visited 
and  cared  for  both  in  and  outside  of  the  church. 
Neglected  children  will  be  hunted  out  and  cared 
for.  The  out  of  the  way  will  be  evangelized. 
The  pastor  will  preach  in  the  school  houses  of 
the  outlying  districts.  He  will  missionate  in 
the  neglected  regions  beyond.    If  a  gypsy  camp 


156       LUTHERAN  CHURCH  IN  THE  COUNTRY 

pitches  near  him  he  will  take  the  gospel  to  these 
Godless  wanderers  on  the  face  of  the  earth. 
If  there  is  a  lumber  camp  or  a  mining  camp 
within  reach  the  Word  will  be  offered  there.  If 
a  group  of  harvesters  or  railroad  builders 
settle  down  for  a  time  where  he  can  get  to  them 
the  living  and  life-giving  gospel  will  be  earn- 
estly offered.  He  will  take  singers  and  teachers 
from  his  church  with  him  to  assist  in  worship 
and  instruction.  And  so  he  and  his  people  will 
be  fishers  of  men.  So  they  will  go  about  doing 
good  even  as  the  blessed  Lord  did  before  them. 
So  they  will  be  doing  inner  mission  work  in  the 
country.  Such  social  service  Christ  will  honor. 
A  church  that  will  thus  be  busy  doing  the 
Lord's  work  in  the  Lord's  way  cannot  decline. 
It  will  increase  and  abound  yet  more  and  more. 
The  beauty  of  the  Lord  our  God  will  be  upon 
it.  It  will  be  a  witness  for  good  and  for  God 
that  cannot  be  gainsaid.  People  will  come  to 
such  a  church  and  say,  We  will  go  with  you  be- 
cause God  is  with  you. 


Part  »ix 

jairtattntt  anb  lExampte 


'Tis  not  a  work  of  small  import 

The  pastor's  care  demands; 
But  what  might  fill  an  angel's  heart 

And  filled  a  Saviour's  hands. 
They  watch  for  souls  for  which  the  Lord 

Did  heavenly  bliss  forego: 
For  souls  which  must  forever  live 

In  rapture  or  in  woe. 

— Wesley, 

So  thou,  0  Son  of  man,  I  have  set  thee  a 
watchman  unto  the  house  of  Israel:  therefore 
thou  shalt  hear  the  word  of  my  mouth  and 
warn  them  from  me.  When  I  say  unto  the 
wicked,  0  wicked  man,  thou  shalt  surely  die ;  if 
thou  dost  not  speak  to  warn  the  wicked  from 
his  way,  that  wicked  man  shall  die  in  his 
iniquity;  but  his  blood  will  I  require  at  thine 
hand.  Nevertheless,  if  thou  warn  the  wicked 
of  his  way  to  turn  from  it,  if  he  do  not  turn 
from  his  way,  he  shall  die  in  his  iniquity;  but 
thou  hast  delivered  thy  soul. — Ezekiel, 

Remember  them  which  have  the  rule  over 
you,  who  have  spoken  unto  you  the  word  of 
God:  whose  faith  follow  considering  the  end 
of  their  conversation  Jesus  Christ,  the  same 
yesterday  and  today  and  forever. — Hebrews. 

Let  prayer  be  the  key  of  the  morning  and 
the  bolt  of  the  evening. — Matthew  Henry. 


.CHAPTER  EIGHTEEN. 

RIGHT  REMEDIES. 

There  are  thousands  of  sincere,  well  mean- 
ing and  earnest  Christians  in  the  Reformed 
churches  in  every  section  of  the  country.  They 
recognize  and  deplore  the  threatening  change 
that  has  come  over  the  church  life  of  the  coun- 
try. They  fear  the  impending  heathenizing. 
They  plan  and  pray  for  a  remedy. 

They  have  too  much  spiritual  experience  and 
earnestness  to  believe  that  the  spiritual  ills  can 
be  cured  by  economic,  recreational  or  other 
secularly  social  improvements.  They  are  con- 
vinced that  spiritual  evils  demand  spiritual 
remedies.  In  this  they  deserve  our  sincerest 
sympathy.  They  never  have  been  clearly  in- 
structed in  God's  way  in  His  sanctuary.  They 
do  not  know  that  God  has  His  own  way  of  sav- 
ing humanity  and  that  His  way  of  salvation  is 
,  clearly  marked  out  in  His  Word.  Of  this 
they  are  sadly  ignorant.  It  has  not  been 
explained  to  them.  This  is  their  misfortune 
a  rather  than  their  fault.  Instead  of  denounc- 
ing  them,  we  should  feel  sorry  for  them. 
We  should  use  every  endeavor  to  show  them 
kindly,   lovingly,   patiently,   a   more   excellent 

159 


160        LUTHERAN   CHURCH  IN  THE  COUNTRY 

way.  In  their  zeal,  which  is  not  according  to 
knowledge,  these  good  people  are  ready  to  take 
up  and  fall  in  with  anything  that  promises  re- 
lief and  betterment.  They  are  often  imposed 
upon  and  inveigled  into  the  fanatical  sects  that 
make  a  great  show  of  earnestness.  These  im- 
mersionist  and  revivalist  and  sanctificationist 
sects  are  heretics  as  to  psychology,  as  to  peda- 
gogy and  as  to  theology.  They  burn  the  country 
over  like  a  forest  fire. 

The  good  people  who  have  too  much  common 
sense  left  to  be  drawn  into  the  nets  of  the 
fanatics  look  elsewhere  for  salvation  from  the 
threatening  heathenism.  They  build  their 
hopes  on  a  country  wide  revival  of  evangelical 
religion.  They  want  all  the  churches  to  forget 
and  lay  aside  their  distinctive  teaching  and 
practice  and  unite  for  the  one  great  purpose 
of  reviving  the  spiritual  life  of  the  community. 
They  are  ready  to  work,  to  pray  and  to  pay 
for  such  a  revival.  They  want  all  to  join  in 
securing  the  best  possible  professional  evan- 
gelist. They  are  willing  to  shut  their  eyes  to 
the  inconsistent  and  objectionable  features  of 
the  campaign.  If  only  souls  can  be  saved  and 
the  churches  revived  and  strengthened  then  all 
will  be  well  in  the  end.  This  is  their  great 
remedy  for  saving  the  country  church. 

The  Lutheran  pastor  in  the  country  and  town 
is  requested  and  urged  to  unite  in  * 'getting  up" 


EIGHT  EEMEDIES  161 

this  community  revival.  He  is  assured  that  his 
church  will  share  in  the  general  benefit  and 
prosperity  that  will  follow.    What  is  he  to  do  ? 

If  he  is  a  true,  a  whole-souled,  consecrated 
servant  of  Christ,  he  knows  and  deeply  deplores 
the  spiritual  dearth  in  the  community.  He  is 
conscious  that  the  spiritual  life  in  his  own  con- 
gregation is  by  no  means  what  it  ought  to  be. 
Like  the  prophet  of  old  he  cries:  **0h  that 
my  head  were  waters  and  mine  eyes  a  fountain 
of  tears  that  I  might  weep  day  and  night  be- 
cause of  the  slain  of  the  daughter  of  my  peo- 
ple." Or  with  the  greatest  of  the  Apostles  he 
exclaims :  ^  *  For  many  walk  of  whom  I  have  told 
you  before  and  now  tell  you  even  weeping  that 
they  are  the  enemies  of  the  cross  of  Christ, 
whose  end  is  destruction,  whose  God  is  their 
belly,  and  whose  glory  is  in  their  shame,  who 
mind  earthly  things. '^ 

Yes,  his  people  too  need  an  awakening,  a 
true  reviving.  And  there  are  many  in  his 
neighborhood  who  ought  to  be  members  of  his 
church.  Might  not  a  general  awakening,  such 
as  is  planned,  reach  them  also  and  bring  them 
in?  Shall  he  join  in?  He  wants  what  other 
earnest  Christians  want,  a  more  widespread 
and  all-embracing  spiritual  interest. 

But  can  he  join  hands  and  cooperate  with  his 
Eeformed  neighbors?  He  considers  seriously 
their  plans,  their  means,  their  methods.    Shall 


162        LUTHERAN  CHUBCH  IN  THE  COUNTRY 

he  confess  his  own  ministry  a  failure,  so  far 
as  implanting  and  promoting  spiritual  life  is 
concerned,  and  give  way  to  a  professional 
evangelist?  Shall  he  confess  that  the  method 
of  making  disciples  which  he  has  learned  from 
Christ  and  which  he  has  tried  to  follow  is  now 
out  of  date?  Must  the  old  way  of  making 
disciples  by  baptizing  and  teaching  be  given  up? 
Shall  he  admit  that  the  new  evangelism  which 
makes  light  of  doctrine  ignores  the  sacraments 
and  appeals  to  feeling  and  to  passion  is  better 
than  Christ's  way?  No,  no!  He  cannot  do 
this.  He  cannot  at  the  request  of  even  good 
and  earnest  people  sacrifice  that  which  makes 
the  Lutheran  Church  Lutheran.  To  do  so 
would  be  too  big  a  step  towards  agreeing  to 
merge  his  church  into  one  central,  nondescript 
union  church  without  creed  or  catechism  or 
conviction  of  truth.  The  Lutheran  must  re- 
main consistently  Lutheran  even  at  the  risk  of 
being  misunderstood,  misrepresented,  and  los- 
ing favor  and  friends  in  the  community.* 

He  reconizes  the  ills  and  the  dangers  of  the 
country  church  and  people.  But  the  proposed 
union  revival  is  not  his  remedy.  What  shall 
be  his  remedy?  Is  there  no  balm  in  Gileadf 
Is  no  physician  there?  He  examines  himself 
and  his  work.    He  cries  mightily  to  God.    Ho 

*0n  the  whole  subject  of  Revivals  see  chapters  xxiil- 
xxvii  in  "The  Way  of  Salvation  in  the  Lutheran  Church." 


RIGHT  REMEDIES  163 

wants  Ms  own  heart  revived.  He  wants  to 
put  more  life  and  energy  into  his  work. 

And  so  he  resolves  on  his  knees  that  he  will 
do  his  preaching  more  with  the  demonstra- 
tion of  the  Spirit  and  with  power.  He  will 
lift  up  his  voice  like  a  trumpet.  He  will  cry 
aloud  and  spare  not.  He  will  show  Israel  his 
sin,  and  the  house  of  Jacob  his  iniquity.  **The 
spiritually  minded  and  consecrated  minister 
will  put  heart-searching,  even  heart-breaking 
power  into  his  preaching.  He  will  preach  with 
feeling  and  with  unction.  His  preaching  will 
make  the  self-secure  and  self-satisfied  sinner 
uneasy,  dissatisfied  with  self,  anxious  about  his 
personal  salvation.  Where  there  is  such 
preaching  there  will  come  requests  for  personal 
interviews  at  which  the  truest  kind  of  private 
confession  will  take  place.'  A  pastor  who  never 
has  persons  deeply  concerned  about  their  own 
personal  salvation  knocking  at  his  study  door 
may  well  question  himself  as  to  whether  his 
preaching  is  with  power  and  with  demonstra- 
tion of  the  spirit.  Our  ministers  need  to  study 
the  great  Lutheran  preachers  who  were  so 
wonderfully  fruitful  in  bringing  sinners  to 
heartfelt  repentance  toward  God  and  faith,  real 
personal  experimental  faith  in  our  Lord  Jesus 
Christ.*  t 

*Read  *Troblems  and  Possibilities,"  pp.  51-57. 

t  For  a  Revival  experience  of  Dr.  Passavant  seQ  his  "Life 
and  Letters,"  pp.  135-138. 


164        LUTHERAN  CHURCH  IN  THB  COUNTRY 

The  earnest  pastor  will  also  resolve  to  do 
more  personal  and  evangelistic  work  with  the 
unchurched  in  his  neighborhood,  pray  with 
them,  speak  to  them  most  earnestly  about  their 
souls,  beseeching  them  to  be  reconciled  with 
God,  warning  every  one  night  and  day  with 
tears. 

He  will  put  more  life  and  personal  applica- 
tion into  all  his  work.  He  will  not  only  baptize, 
but  will  explain  its  meaning  and  responsibility 
in  relation  to  the  spiritual  life.  He  will  not 
only  teach  and  preach  the  true  doctrine  on  the 
Lord^s  Supper  but  will  more  than  heretofore 
insist  on  the  need  of  heart-searching  and  peni- 
tent preparation  for  the  right  reception  of  the 
holy  sacrament.  He  will  put  more  life  and 
personal  application  into  his  catechizing  and 
emphasize  more  the  need  of  heart  preparation 
for  confirmation.  And  so  he  will  with  God's 
help  revive  and  strengthen  the  country  church 
and  make  it  a  power  for  spiritual  good  in  the 
community. 


CHAPTER  NINETEEN. 

RIGHT  REMEDIES  {Continued), 

In  this  last  chapter  we  want  to  reimpress  the 
safeguardings  and  the  remedies  that  Lutheran 
ministers  in  the  country  need  to  take  to  heart. 
Will  the  brethren  pardon  plainness  of  speech? 
Will  they  suffer  this  word  of  exhortation?  We 
want  to  strike  to  hit.  We  want  to  hit  to  hurt. 
We  want  to  hurt  to  heal.  It  is  for  the  hurt  of 
Joseph  that  we  need  to  be  hurt. 

We  have  spoken  freely  and  frequently  of  the 
urgent  need  of  right  preaching.  It  is  written 
in  one  of  our  great  confessions  that  **  There  is 
nothing  that  holds  people  to  the  church  like 
good  preaching.''  Whoever  does  not  lay  the 
emphasis  on  preaching,  whoever  does  not  give 
the  proper  care  as  to  whether  his  preaching  is 
good  is  not  true  to  the  Lutheran  confession,  he 
is  not  orthodox. 

But  a  greater  than  Melanchthon  has  said  that 
*^It  pleased  God  by  the  foolishness  of  preach- 
ing to  save  them  that  believe.  Preach  the  word, 
preach  the  preaching  that  I  bid  thee."  These 
are  God's  exhortations,  **If  thou  wilt  not  warn 

165 


166        LUTHERAN  CHURCH  IN  THE  COUNTRY 

the  wicked  man  in  his  wickedness  he  shall  die, 
but  his  blood  will  I  require  at  thine  hands/' 
The  minister  must  watch  for  souls  as  he  that 
must  give  account. 

We  do  not  want  to  think  that  there  are  many 
of  our  preachers  who  are  too  lazy  to  prepare 
as  they  should,  too  lazy  to  do  their  best.  All 
such  will  have  a  heavy  account  to  give  to  God. 

But  we  do  fear  that  there  are  all  too  many 
whose  preaching  is  intellectually  cold.  It  is 
historically,  exegetically  and  doctrinally  cor- 
rect, but  it  lacks  heart-power.  It  does  not 
bring  the  careless,  easy-going  sinner  to  a  heart- 
felt sense  of  his  guilt.  It  does  not  awaken  the 
sleepy  sinner  to  personal  repentance.  It  does 
not  have  in  it  the  heart  comfort  and  encourage- 
ment that  the  sincere  but  timid,  distressed  in 
the  faith  need.  The  heart  that  is  heavy,  bur- 
dened, bowed  down  and  crying  for  comfort  and 
hope  is  not  sent  home  from  church  lightened 
and  lifted  up  into  the  peace  of  God.  In  this 
sad  world  there  are  so  many  heavy  hearts,  more 
than  we  realize.  Their  faith  is  weak,  their  fears 
are  strong.  Yet  their  heart  panteth  for  God 
as  the  deer  panteth  after  the  water  brooks. 
*^  Comfort  ye,  comfort  ye  my  people  saith  the 
Lord.  Speak  ye  to  the  heart  of  Jerusalem. 
Tell  her  that  her  sins  are  forgiven  that  her 
iniquities  are  pardoned  that  the  Lord  hatb 
given  double  for  all  her  sins. ' '    It  is  the  blessed 


RIGHT  REMEDIES  (CONTINUED)  167 

privilege  of  the  minister  to  smite  that  he  may 
heal,  to  throw  down  that  he  may  lift  up,  to  break 
the  heart  that  he  may  bind  up  the  broken 
hearted,  to  comfort  all  that  mourn  in  Zion,  to 
give  them  beauty  for  ashes,  the  oil  of  joy  for 
mourning,  and  the  garment  of  praise  for  the 
spirit  of  heaviness.  All  this  he  does  by  rightly, 
tenderly,  feelingly  preaching  law  and  gospel, 
telling  men,  even  weeping  as  he  tells  them,  that 
they  are  the  enemies  of  the  cross  of  Christ  and 
that  the  end  of  such  is  destruction,  and  lifting 
the  penitent  into  the  peace  of  God.  Such  heart 
power  is  the  great  need  of  our  Lutheran  pulpit. 
The  country  church  that  has  such  preaching 
cannot  decline.  God  always  owns  and  blesses 
such  preaching. 

Another  department  of  ministerial  duty  in 
which  we  fear  too  many  of  our  pastors  are 
derelict  is  private  seelsorge.  Lutheran  pastors 
in  the  large  state-church  parishes  of  the  old 
world  are  not  expected  to  look  after  their  people 
personally  and  individually.  Preaching  from 
house  to  house,  watching  for  every  individual 
soul  as  one  that  must  give  account,  warning 
everyone  night  and  day  with  tears,  are  not  em- 
phasized as  every  pastor  *s  duty  in  the  state 
churches.  Many  of  the  great  theologians  and 
teachers  of  the  church  have  declared  themselves 
against  going  to  see  people  except  when  sent 


168        LUTHERAN   CHURCH  IN  THE  COUNTRt 

for.  Some  of  the  old  church  orders  take  the 
same  position.* 

These  traditions  of  the  old  world,  so  com- 
fortable to  the  flesh,  have  influenced  and  are 
influencing  too  many  of  our  Lutheran  ministers. 
Some  of  them  seem  to  have  the  idea  that  it  is 
beneath  their  dignity  to  run  after  people.  They 
have  not  been  trained  to  and  they  do  not  like  to 
do  personal  pastoral  work.  They  do  not  train 
their  people  to  do  personal  work.  They  allow 
the  more  evangelistic  but  less  evangelical 
churches  to  outdo  them  and  to  gain  many  people 
whom  the  Lutheran  Church  might  have  and 
should  have  had. 

This  is  even  more  true  as  a  rule  in  the  coun- 
try than  in  the  city.  Pastoral  visiting  is  more 
laborious  in  the  country  than  in  the  city.  It 
consumes  more  time  and  energy.  Too  many 
pastors  dislike  it  and  regard  it  as  a  drudgery. 
Hence  they  see  their  people  only  in  church. 
The  cold  and  careless  are  not  admonished  face 
to  face.  The  endangered  are  not  warned,  the 
lost  sheep  and  straying  lambs  are  not  sought 
until  found.  Those  along  the  highways  and 
hedges  are  not  invited  and  compelled  to  come 
in.  Thousands  are  left  in  a  world  unfriendly 
and  hostile  to  God,  and  no  man  cares  for  their 

*  See  "The  Luther  Pastor,"  chap,  xviii.  The  whole  section 
on  private  seelsorge  ought  to  be  frequently  and  prayerfully 
gone  over. 


3R1GHT  REMEDIES  (cONTINUEd)  169 

soul.  We  fear  that  there  are  hosts  of  them 
living  in  reach  of  Lutheran  Churches  to  whom 
the  Lutheran  pastor  never  spoke  about  the 
needs  and  dangers  of  their  souls.  There  are 
godless  country  homes  near  to  our  churches 
into  whose  door  a  Lutheran  pastor  never  en- 
tered. Here  is  a  crying  country  need.  Here 
is  a  heavy  pastoral  responsibility.  Here  is  a 
work  needed  far  more  than  a  so-called  revival 
and  far  more  effective  than  a  spasmodic  public 
excitement.  Here  Lutheran  evangelism  is 
needed.  Our  country  churches  suffer  for  the 
lack  of  it.  Its  absence  makes  many  churches 
decline. 

As  agencies  closely  connected  with  and  auxil- 
iary to  such  personal  visitation  and  work  every 
country  and  city  church  also  ought  to  have 
adult  catechetical  and  Bible  classes.  These 
classes  ought  to  be  free  conferences.  Here  the 
class  members  should  be  encouraged  to  bring 
and  unload  all  their  doubts  and  perplexities! 
Here  they  should  ask  the  questions  that  trouble 
them.  Here  they  should  seek  and  find  the 
needed  solutions  and  answers.  Here  is  an 
agency  that  Lutherans  have  not  half  appre- 
ciated. We  have  not  utilized  these  adult  classes 
as  evangelistic  agencies.  Where  we  have  them 
we  too  often  preach  down  to  them,  and  their 
doubts  and  difficulties  remain  unanswered.  In 
such  classes  the  people  ought  to  ask  far  more 


170        LUTHERAN   CHUECH  IN  THE  COUNTRY 

questions  than  the  teacher.  When  a  teacher  is 
drawing  out  more  questions  than  he  is  asking 
he  is  doing  his  best  teaching. 

There  are  some  people  who  have  questions 
on  their  mind  but  are  too  timid  to  ask  them  in 
class.  For  such  a  question  box  should  be  at 
hand.  This  might  be  a  further  help  to  extend 
help  where  help  is  most  needed.  Every  mem- 
ber of  these  classes  ought  to  be  always  on  the 
lookout  to  help  to  bring  in  others.  And  so 
the  classes  ought  to  be  the  fruitage  of 
the  personal  and  pastoral  work  among  the  out- 
siders as  well  as  among  the  church  people. 
They  could  and  should  be  a  power  of  good  to 
the  country  church.* 

One  of  the  glories  of  our  church  is  her  cus- 
tom of  catechization.  No  other  church  has  so 
good  a  custom.  As  a  whole  no  other  church  in 
the  world  does  as  much  for  the  children  as  our 
Lutheran  Church.  The  catechism  is  one  of  her 
crown  jewels. 

We  are  happy  in  the  conviction  that  the  great 
majority  of  our  ministers  catechize  their  chil- 
dren. Not  all  are  as  painstaking  and  as  thor- 
ough as  they  ought  to  be.  Too  many  are  super- 
ficial and  hasty  in  their  work.  There  are  still 
some  who  are  satisfied  with  a  few  so-called 
lectures,  but  lecturing  is  not  catechizing. 

A  more  common  and  a  more  serious  fault, 

*  See  "Problems  and  PossibiUties,"  pp.  61-64. 


RIGHT  REMEDIES   (CONTINUED)  171 

however,  is  a  cold,  schoolmasterly  manner  of 
catechising.  There  is  a  sad  lack  of  heart,  lack 
of  heartiness,  absence  of  warmth,  and  ab- 
sence of  interest  in  the  souls  of  the  catechu- 
mens. Here  also  heart  power,  the  power  to 
draw  the  hearts  of  the  catechumens  into  per- 
sonal and  experimental  relation  with  the  dear 
Saviour  is  the  great  desideratum.*  The  right 
kind  of  catechizing  for  the  head,  for  the  heart, 
for  the  life,  for  old  as  well  as  for  young,  is  a 
wonderful  help  for  the  country  church. 

Another  helpful  agency  that  we  mention  is  a 
good,  live,  interesting  and  attractive  Sunday 
school.  We  Lutherans  have  the  best  Sunday 
school  literature  in  the  world.  The  Lutheran 
Sunday  school  is  not  an  independent  institution. 
It  is  a  part  of  the  congregation.  It  has  been 
called  the  teaching  department  of  the  church. 
Its  worship  and  all  its  literature  are  in  har- 
mony with  the  church.  It  does  not  train  away 
from  the  church,  but  more  deeply  into  the 
church. 

It  is  graded  according  to  the  best  principles 
of  psychology,  of  pedagogy  and  of  scripture.  It 
is  a  school,  a  Bible  school.  Topped  out  with  a 
Bible  class,  as  advocated  above,  it  can  be  and 

*  Read  over  carefuUy  pp.  30  If.,  and  chapters  xii,  xvi,  and 
xvii  in  "The  Lutheran  Catechist,  also  chapters  ix-xlii,  "Way 
of  Salvation." 


172        LUTHERAN   CHURCH  IN  THE  COUNTRY 

ought  to  be  a  powerful  agency  in  and  for  the 
country  church.f 

The  greatest  need  and  the  one  most  difficult 
to  satisfy  is  the  securing  of  the  right  kind  of 
teachers  for  the  Sunday  school.  We  want 
teachers  who  can  teach.  We  cannot  be  satisfied 
with  mere  attractive  entertainers.  We  want 
our  teachers  to  be  living  Christians  and  devoted 
members  of  our  own  church.  We  want  them 
to  know  what  to  teach  and  how  to  teach. 

The  pastor  is  the  head  of  his  congregation. 
He  is  responsible  for  the  teaching  in  his  church. 
He  is  to  be  the  teacher  of  the  teachers.  He  is 
to  teach  them  what  to  teach.  He  is  to  teach 
them  how  to  teach.  Where  our  graded  series 
is  used  he  is  to  be  master  of  the  whole  series. 
It  will  certainly  drive  him  into  a  deeper  and 
wider  study  of  the  Bible.  This  is  good  for  him. 
He  needs  to  have  a  good  teacher  training  class. 
This  class  he  ought  to  meet  regularly  and  train 

thoroughly.^ 

He  will  also  do  all  he  can  to  establish  and  en- 
courage Sunday  school  institutes  and  summer 
schools  for  teacher  training.  These  will  be  a 
great  help  toward  making  his  Sunday  school 

t  See  "Way  of  Salvation,"  pp.  55-68 ;  "Lutheran  Pastor." 
pp.  244-246;  "Problems  and  Possibilities,"  pp.  52,  53,  103-107. 

t  To  guide  and  assist  in  teacher  training  he  and  every 
teacher  needs  "The  Su^day  School  Handbook,"  by  J.  R.  E. 
Hunt. 


EIGHT  REMEDIES   (CONTINUED)  173 

effective.      An    efficient    Sunday    school    is    a 
mighty  power  in  a  country  community. 

A  good  Luther  League  will  help  to  hold  to- 
gether and  interest  the  young  people.  It  can 
also  be  made  a  useful  training  school  for  in- 
telligence in  all  that  pertains  to  the  church,  her 
teaching,  her  history,  her  life  and  her  activities. 
Out  of  a  good  Luther  League  will  come  Sunday 
school  and  church  workers  as  well  as  candidates 
for  the  ministry  of  mercy  and  candidates  for 
the  ministry  of  the  Word.  The  efficient  country 
church  needs  a  good  live  Luther  League.* 

All  these  agencies  require  a  consecrated,  en- 
ergetic and  ever  active  pastor.  Every  church 
problem  in  city  or  country  is  always,  in  the  end 
a  pastoral  problem.  The  greatest  need  still  is 
pastors  after  Christ's  own  heart. 

*See  "The  Lutheran  Pastor."  pp.  246-248;  "Problems  and 
Possibilities."  pp.  95.  96.  107-110.  Every  Lutheran  minister 
needs  the  new,  revised  "Luther  League  Handbook." 


Part  #pwn 


Every  noble  work  is  at  first  impossible. — 
Carlyle. 

There  is  no  well-doing,  no  God-like  doing, 
that  is  not  patient  doing. — J,  G.  Holland. 

Whatsoever  ye  do,  do  it  heartily,  as  to  the 
Lord  and  not  unto  men. — Paul. 

Let  all  things  be  done  decently  and  in  order. 
— Paul. 

If  any  man  lack  wisdom,  let  him  ask  of  God, 
who  giveth  liberally  and  upbraideth  not. — 
James, 

Never  fear  to  bring  the  sublimest  motive  to 
the  smallest  duty. — Phillips  Brooks. 

What  man  has  done,  man  can  do. 

— Everybody. 

They  that  be  wise  shall  shine  as  the  bright- 
ness of  the  firmament ;  and  they  that  turn  many 
to  righteousness  as  the  stars  forever  and  ever. 
— Daniel. 


CHAPTER  TWENTY. 

A    LUTHEBAN    PASTOR 's    WONDERFUL.    WORK. 

About  thirty  miles  Southwest  of  the  famous 
city  of  Strassburg,  on  a  plateau  of  the  Vosges 
Mountains  lies  the  land  called  the  Steinthal.  It 
is  a  part  of  Alsatia  which  in  the  time  of  which 
we  write  belonged  to  France.  Since  the  close 
of  the  Franco-Prussian  war  it  is  part  of  the 
German  Empire.  Here  a  hundred  years  before 
that  war  lived  and  labored  one  of  the  great 
country  pastors  of  his  time.  Here  in  a  wild 
forbidding  country,  among  a  half  savage 
people  a  young  university  bred  pastor  began  a 
pastorate  that  was  to  last  for  sixty  years.  The 
story  of  those  sixty  years*  is  one  of  the  true 
romances  of  church  history.  It  brings  before 
us  a  wonderful  career  of  a  wonderful  man  of 
God.  His  life  and  work  should  receive  the  care- 
ful study  of  every  country  pastor.  It  would 
prove  an  inspiration  to  many  a  disheartened 
one. 

The  people  of  the  bare  mountain  parish  called 
themselves  '^Christians  of  the  Augsburg  Con- 
fession." But  there  was  little  living  Christian- 
ity among  them.  They  lived  largely  by  hunting 
and  hog-raising.     They  were  ignorant,  rough 

177 


178        LUTHEEAN   CHUECH  IN   THE  COUNTEY 

and  given  to  drink.  They  lived  in  poverty  and  in 
filth.  Surely  an  unpromising  field.  Few  of  our 
seminary  graduates  would  be  willing  to  start  in 
such  a  place.  The  parish  had  been  served  for 
several  generations  by  rationalistic  and  worldly 
pastors.  Under  them  the  economic,  the  intel- 
lectual, the  moral  and  spiritual  life  of  the  people 
had  sunk  lower  and  ever  lower.  A  blessed  ex- 
ception was  the  young  Eev.  Johann  Stuber. 
He  was  the  immediate  predecessor  of  Oberlin. 
'While  he  lived  Oberlin  looked  to  him  as  a 
spiritual  advisor.  He  had  laid  the  foundations 
on  which  Oberlin  so  successfully  builded. 

The  young  Oberlin  was  hoping  to  become  a 
chaplain  in  the  French  army.  With  this  in  view 
he  had  studied  science  and  system  and  had  ac- 
customed himself  to  a  rigid  regime.  While 
waiting  for  an  appointment  he  was  tutor  in  the 
family  of  a  wealthy  physician.  Here  he  studied 
the  principles  of  hygiene,  sanitation  and  ma- 
teria medica.  He  was  unconsciously  preparing 
himself  for  his  many-sided  work  in  the  Stein- 
thal. 

Oberlin  was  a  deeply  spiritual  man.  While 
he  was  considering  a  call  to  the  Steinthal  he 
wrote  out  a  most  remarkable  personal  confes- 
sion of  his  faith  and  experience.  It  reads  like 
the  journal  of  young  Passavant.*     This  con- 

*  See  "Life  and  Letters  of  Passavant,"  pp.  63-77. 


A  LUTHERAN  PASTOR 's  WONDERFUL  WORK       179 

fession  lie  renewed  ten  years  later.  The 
confession  breathes  a  spirit  of  deep  mysticism 
and  pietism.  It  lays  bare  the  inner  life  of  the 
man.  It  marks  him  as  a  man  of  deep  devotion 
to  his  Lord.  His  correspondence  with  Pastor 
Stuber  brings  out  the  same  personal  traits. 
Stuber  did  him  much  good.  He  saw  the  danger 
of  mixing  in  too  many  outside  projects.  We 
are  tempted  to  give  large  extracts  from 
Stuber 's  letters.  We  give  space  to  only  a  few.* 
**God  will  bless  your  faithfulness  which 
shines  out  so  lovingly  in  your  letters.  Only  let 
us  cling  in  faith  to  Him.  You  have,  my  young 
brother,  far  more  than  I  have;  an  attractive- 
ness before  men.  If  only  you  keep  on  fearing 
God  above  all  others  and  do  not  allow  yourself 
to  be  drawn  into  too  many  projects,  you  can 
do  much  more  effective  work  than  I  did.  I 
want  to  impress  upon  you  that  one  can  get 
away  from  true  Christianity  even  through  good 
works.  You  have  been  converted.  Now  if  you 
do  not  watch,  if  you  do  not  keep  close  to  God, 
if  you  depend  upon  your  past  conversion,  if 
you  cumber  yourself  with  too  many  labors,  too 
many  anxieties,  you  may  in  neglecting  a  daily 
conversion,  a  daily  intercourse  with  your  God, 

*  Our  principal  authority  for  the  facts  of  this  chapter  is 
the  German  "Zuege  aus  dem  Leben  von  JoJiann  Friedrich 
Oherlin,'*  by  Dr.  G.  H.  Shubert.  Pilger  Book  Store,  Read- 
ing, Pa. 


180       LUTHERAN  CHURCH  IN   THE  COUNTRY 

a  daily  refreshing  of  tlie  inner  man,  become  so 
diverted,  so  cold,  that  even  devotional  exercises 
will  separate  you  from  God/'  *^The  zealous 
young  man  is  so  easily  tempted  to  say,  *I  am 
so  busy  helping  others'  that  he  neglects  the 
fostering  of  his  own  inner  life.  Therefore  have 
I  thought  it  well  to  warn  you.  The  heart  is 
deceitful  and  heavy  as  lead.  It  sinks  down  if 
it  is  not  constantly  drawn  up.  I  find  it  deeply 
necessary  that  for  the  refreshing  of  our  own 
hearts  and  for  the  constant  rekindling  of  the 
spirit  of  Christianity  within  us  we  keep  impres- 
sing upon  ourselves  the  vital  necessity  of  dili- 
gently using  the  Word  and  prayer.  Out  of 
the  writings  of  the  Apostles  I  must  strengthen 
my  spiritual  life  .  .  .  The  most  important 
thing  for  you  is  that  you  care  for  the  souls  of 
your  Steinthal  people,  make  them  good  Chris- 
tians and  other  virtues  will  be  easily  learned.'' 
That  Oberlin  took  to  heart  these  fatherly 
councils  is  manifest  all  through  his  active  min- 
istry. It  would  be  an  utterly  false  conception 
of  the  man  to  think  of  him  as  a  minister  who 
was  mainly  concerned  for  the  temporal  welfare 
of  his  people.  He  never  put  the  temporal  first. 
He  never  even  dreamed  of  letting  temporal 
well-being  substitute  Spiritual  welfare.  He 
always  put  the  first  things  first.  *  *  Seek  ye  first 
the  kingdom  of  God"  was  a  life  principle  with 
him. 


A  LUTHERAN  PASTOR 's  WONDERFUL  WORK      181 

That  the  first  concern  of  his  yearning  and 
striving  and  working  was  that  he  might  win 
the  souls  of  young  and  old  for  Christ  is  mani- 
fest from  his  habits  of  prayer.  Not  only  in 
the  morning  and  in  the  evening  but  often 
through  the  day  would  he  get  on  his  knees  and 
make  intercession  for  the  souls  of  his  people. 
In  his  later  years  he  had  the  habit  of  having 
his  church  register  open  before  him  when  he 
knelt  in  private  prayer.  Then  he  would  bring 
this  one  and  the  other  one  of  his  flock  before 
his  God  by  name  and  make  special  intercession 
for  those  thus  named.  Among  his  papers  were 
found  many  pages  of  pious  wishes  for  his  flock. 
Members  of  his  family  testified  that  he  would 
spend  whole  nights  in  pleading  for  his  people 
and  would  cry  out  again  and  again:  **0h  my 
congregation,  My  poor  congregation!'' 

His  preaching  was  mainly  a  clear  exposition 
with  earnest  personal  application  and  striking 
illustration  from  the  experience  of  eminent 
Christians  and  from  the  daily  life  and  work  of 
his  own  country  people. 

His  sermons  were  generally  written  out  in 
full  and  memorized.  When  too  much  pressed 
for  time  to  do  this  he  would  write  out  a  full 
outline  and  preach  freely  from  this. 

In  his  catechetical  instruction  on  Sunday 
afternoon  he  would  speak;  like  a  child  to  chil- 
dren.   His  catchetical  talks  were  full  of  strik- 


182       LUTHEKAN  CHURCH  IN  THE  COUNTRY 

ing  and  fascinating  illustrations.  His  chief 
aim  was  to  reach  the  heart  and  conscience  and 
through  them  to  move  the  will. 

For  a  time  he  tried  to  have  a  conventicle  for 
especially  enlightened  souls.  After  about  a 
year  he  found  that  it  created  a  tendency  to 
spiritual  pride  and  gave  offense  to  those  with- 
out the  spiritual  circle.  When  this  became 
evident  he  openly  confessed  that  the  plan  had 
been  a  mistake,  dissolved  the  circle  and  dis- 
continued its  meetings. 

In  its  place  he  started  a  weekly  Bible  hour 
to  which  he  invited  all  who  wished  to  come. 
Here  he  expounded  and  applied  larger  portions 
of  scripture.  This  he  did  in  a  most  familiar, 
frank  and  conversational  way.  At  intervals 
he  would  pause,  take  a  pinch  of  snuff  and  pass 
the  snuff  box  through  the  audience.  When  he 
thought  some  of  them  were  weary  he  would  ask, 
*^ Children,  are  you  tired?  If  you  are  we  will 
stop  here.*'  Sometimes  they  would  admit  that 
it  was  enough  for  this  time.  More  often  they 
would  request  that  he  keep  on  a  little  longer. 

He  wanted  a  Bible  in  every  house  and  wanted 
it  used  there.  He  persuaded  the  officers  of  the 
British  and  Foreign  Bible  Society  to  open  a 
branch  house  in  Waldbach.  From  here  the 
French  and  German  Bibles  were  distributed 
throughout  his  large  parish. 

Oberlin  was  a  frequent  and  faithful  visitor 


A  LUTHEKAN  PASTOR 's  WONDERFUL  WORK      183 

in  the  houses  of  his  people.  His  were  true 
pastoral  visits.  He  would  inquire  into  the  use 
of  God's  Word,  into  the  training  of  the  children, 
and  into  the  spiritual  interests  in  general.  He 
would  kindly  give  instructions  and  admonitions 
on  all  these  things.  Often  he  would  kneel  and 
pray  in  the  humble  homes  of  his  peasant  people. 

From  the  beginnng  of  his  work  among  them 
Oberlin  took  a  deep  interest  in  the  education 
of  his  people.  He  saw  the  sad  lack  of  good 
schools.  His  predecessor  Shubert  had  made 
a  heroic  beginning.  He  had  built  the  first  re- 
spectable school  building.  Oberlin  collected 
money  from  friends  in  Strassburg  and  built 
another  in  Waldbach.  By  and  by  he  had  a 
school  house  in  every  little  village  of  the  Stein- 
thal.  He  himself  was  the  soul  of  the  system. 
He  introduced  competitive  examinations  with 
prizes  for  those  who  excelled.  With  the  aid 
of  his  friends,  added  to  his  own  liberal  gifts, 
he  established  a  circulating  library  in  which 
every  village  had  a  right. 

He  had  noticed  that  the  children  under  school 
age  were  in  need  of  attention.  While  the 
parents  were  at  work  in  the  fields  and  the  older 
ones  were  in  school  the  little  ones  were  left 
without  care  or  protection.  Sometimes  they 
were  locked  in  the  house.  Most  of  the  time 
they  were  left  to  roam  and  to  take  care  of  them- 
selves.    Oberlin  saw  that  they  were  often  in 


1S4       LUTHEEAK  CHtJKCH  IK  THE  COUNTRY 

physical  and  moral  danger.  This  gave  him 
serious  concern. 

One  day  as  he  looked  out  of  his  window  he 
saw  his  fifteen  year  old  maid,  Louisa  Schepler, 
with  a  group  of  these  neglected  children  around 
her.  All  seemed  to  be  deeply  interested. 
Louisa  was  teaching  them  games,  telling  them 
stories,  and  drilling  them  in  verses  of  simple 
song.  Oberlin  watched  this  impromptu  little 
children's  school  with  joy.  It  was  a  kinder- 
garten at  work  before  Froebel  was  born.  It 
was  a  Christian  Kindergarten.  The  stories 
were  Bible  stories  and  the  songs  were  hymns. 
Oberlin  made  up  his  mind  to  have  just  such  a 
school  in  each  village.  Louisa  Schepler  showed 
the  way.  Eight  other  bright  girls  were  soon 
secured.  These  ^^cadetted^'  under  Louisa. 
She  became  the  teacher  trainer  and  soon  there 
were  eight  schools  in  operation.  This  was  the 
origin  of  the  Christian  Kindergarten.* 

In  1794  the  National  Convention  of  the 
French  Eepublic  recognized  Oberlin 's  Kinder- 
garten. In  acknowledging  their  recognition 
Oberlin  writes :  ^ '  It  is  now  about  twenty-seven 
years  since  I  placed  eight  teachers  in  as  many 
villages  of  my  parish.  They  taught  the  little 
ones  by  means  of  pictures,  stories,  games,  plays 
and   songs.     They   also   taught   them   to   knit 

*  See  the  neat  little  booklet  of  the  Rev.  Dr.  T.  E.  Schmauk 
called  "The  Christian  Kindergarten." 


A  LUTHERAN  PASTOR  ^S  WONDERFUL  WORK      185 

which  up  to  that  time  was  unknown  in  the 
region/'  In  these  schools  the  children  learned 
of  the  dear  Saviour  and  the  other  great  and 
good  men  and  women  of  the  Bible.  The  inci- 
dents related  in  this  chapter  bring  out  the  deep 
spiritual  character  of  Oberlin. 

These  essential  characteristics  of  the  man 
and  the  pastor  are  generally  passed  over  in  the 
books  on  the  country  church  that  hold  him  up 
as  the  model  country  parson.  They  dwell  on 
the  economic  and  industrial  improvements  that 
he  introduced  as  if  he  had  given  his  whole  care 
and  time  to  these. 

We  want  to  impress  it  clearly  and  deeply 
that  Oberlin  was  first  of  all  a  man  of  God.  He 
was  a  devout  and  consecrated  spiritual  guide. 
The  secular  interests  that  he  taught  his  people 
were  side-lines.  In  the  midst  of  his  week-day 
secular  work,  he  was  always  a  seelsorger.  We 
want  our  country  pastors  to  be  helpful  to  their 
people  in  securing  a  richer  home  and  farm  life. 
But  we  want  them  to  carry  Oberlin 's  spirit  into 
it  all. 


CHAPTER  TWENTY-ONE. 

oberun's   industrial   and    social   leadership. 

Oberlin  knew  that  people  who  lived  in  pov- 
erty, dirt,  and  social  degradation  were  not  good 
subjects  for  the  Gospel  to  work  on.  He  also 
knew  that  ignorance  is  a  serious  hindrance  to 
evangelization.  He  knew  that  ignorance, 
poverty  and  filth  are  breeders  of  vice  and  that 
economic  degradation  provokes  moral  degrada- 
tion. He  lived  long  before  there  was  an  or- 
ganized Inner  Mission  or  a  social  service  pro- 
paganda. But  he  knew  what  is  true  in  the 
fundamental  principles  of  both.  He  knew  that 
in  Steinthal  he  could  not  evangelize  without 
bettering  the  community  life  on  its  secular  and 
social  side. 

He  also  knew  that  such  betterment  always 
follows  right  evangelization.  He  knew  that 
when  poor  and  degraded  people  become  Chris- 
tians they  rise  out  of  their  degradation  and 
poverty.  He  knew  that  social  well-being  al- 
ways follow  spiritual  renewal.  But  he  also 
knew  that  those  who  have  been  living  on  a  low 
plane  socially  needed  to  be  shown  how  and  to  be 
helped  toward  a  higher  family  and  society  life. 

186 


OBEREIN  ^S  INDUSTRIAL  AND  SOCIAL  LEADERSHIP     187 

And,  still  further,  Oberlin  knew  that  it  is  tho 
bounden  duty  of  every  child  of  God  to  do  what 
in  him  lies  to  help  make  the  life  of  his  neighbors 
more  comfortable  and  happy.  He  expected  all 
his  people  to  be  willing  social  service  workers 
always,  not  that  they  might  thereby  be  saved, 
but  because  they  themselves  had  been  saved. 

He  never  for  a  moment  cherished  the  shal- 
low idea  that  to  give  a  bath  would  make  a  clean 
heart;  that  to  feed  the  hungry  would  satisfy 
the  soul;  that  to  clothe  their  bodies  would  make 
them  fit  to  stand  before  God,  and  to  give  them 
better  housing  would  mean  a  home  and  shelter 
for  the  spirit.  Oberlin  would  scout  the  notion 
that  to  have  eugenics  prevail  would  do  away 
with  the  need  of  a  new  birth.  He  would  never 
even  have  listened  to  the  airy  hopes  and 
schemes  of  a  Christless  and  Holy  Spiritless 
social  service. 

But  he  did  have  a  deep  true  Christ-like  com- 
passion for  his  poor  degraded  people.  He  did 
want  them  to  have  more  worldly  comfort,  more 
leisure  to  learn,  a  brighter  and  happier  life. 

And  so,  without  neglecting  the  care  of  their 
souls,  he  set  out  to  educate  the  community  in 
the  ways  of  a  better  social  life. 

The  people  had  degenerated  into  the  most 
slip-shod  type  of  farmers.  Their  soil  had  be- 
come impoverished.  They  were  one-crop 
farmers.     They  knew  nothing  of  rotation  or 


188       LUTHERAN  CHURCH  IN  THE  COUNTRY 

fertilizing.  They  cultivated  potatoes.  But  the 
quantity  and  quality  produced  per  acre  had 
become  lower  and  lower.  The  more  energetic 
hunted  game  and  fished.  Those  that  were  too 
listless  for  this  and  too  lazy  eked  out  a  bare 
existence.  Many  were  hungry  all  the  time.  A 
widow  once  earned  a  penny.  She  expressed 
her  joy  by  saying  that  now  she  would  be  able 
to  buy  salt  to  eat  with  her  potatoes. 

The  land  was  well  adapted  to  clover,  to  grain, 
to  fruit,  but  none  of  these  was  raised. 

Oberlin  preached  improved  farming  first  by 
example.  He  planted  the  fields  of  his  glebe  in 
berries,  small  fruits  and  orchards.  These  he 
cultivated,  pruned,  grafted,  budded  and  fer- 
tilized. Spraying  was  not  yet  needed.  In  a 
few  years  he  had  a  good  variety  of  the  finest 
fruits.  His  people  wondered  and  admired.  He 
showed  them  and  helped  them  to  do  likewise. 
He  imported  potatoes  for  seed  and  taught  the 
people  how  to  cut  them  before  planting  and 
how  to  fertilize  and  cultivate.  In  a  few  years 
the  better  farmers  had  loads  to  take  to  Strass- 
burg.  He  imported  clover,  flax,  grain  and 
vegetable  seed.  He  showed  his  people  how  to 
raise  them.  He  likewise  imported  good  breeds 
of  cattle  and  taught  his  people  the  principles 
of  breeding  and  feeding.  He  taught  them  the 
value  and  use  of  manure.  He  taught  them  how 
to  drain  the  swampy  and  useless  lowlands  and 


OBERLIN  'S  INDUSTRIAL.  AND  SOCIAL  LEADERSHIP     189 

SO  make  them  the  most  productive  parts  of  the 
land.  For  all  this  he  secured  the  interest  and 
help  of  the  agricultural  society  of  Strassburg. 

He  encouraged  sheep  culture  and  introduced 
the  spinning  of  wool  as  well  as  of  flax.  He  en- 
couraged capitalists  to  come  and  erect  cotton, 
linen  and  woolen  mills. 

As  produce  increased  the  need  of  roads  to 
get  it  to  market  became  pressing.  Oberlin  ad- 
vised the  building  of  good  roads.  The  people 
did  not  know  how.  He  surveyed  the  routes  and 
then  with  his  own  shovel  showed  the  group  how 
to  proceed.  For  days  he  thus  labored  with  his 
own  hands.  By  and  by  the  whole  section 
became  known  for  its  good  roads  and  good 
farms.  Oberlin  was  careful  to  have  the  best 
road  to  the  church.  The  swampy  places  were 
piked  with  the  abundance  of  stone  which  gave 
the  valley  its  name.  The  good  roads  and  better 
teams  brought  crowds  to  church.  He  taught 
and  encouraged  his  people  to  build  roomy  stone 
houses  with  walled  cellars  for  keeping  their 
potatoes,  fruits  and  other  vegetables. 

He  saw  the  need  of  mechanics.  He  believed 
in  raising  a  home  supply.  He  sought  out  the 
brightest  and  fittest  young  men.  He  gave 
liberally  of  his  own  meagre  means  and  collected 
from  his  friends  in  Strassburg  the  needed 
funds  to  send  the  young  men  to  the  city  to 
learn  the  various  handicrafts  needed  in  the 


190        LUTHERAN  CHURCH  IN  THE  COUNTRY 

country.  He  also  had  a  young  man  educated 
to  be  the  parish  physician. 

His  own  salary  varied  from  two  to  three 
hundred  dollars  a  year.  "With  his  own  good 
management  he  got  a  goodly  income  from  his 
glebe.  He  also  had  a  private  boarding  school 
in  one  of  the  church's  buildings,  to  which  the 
rich  people  of  Strassburg  were  glad  to  intrust 
their  boys.  In  these  ways  he  managed  to  get 
the  money  which  he  contributed  so  liberally  for 
the  various  enterprises  for  the  public  good. 
During  and  after  the  terrible  days  of  the  French 
Eevolution  the  people  of  his  parish  were  again 
impoverished.  Oberlin  announced  publicly  that 
there  should  be  no  compulsion  in  making  the 
people  pay  their  church  dues.  He  wanted  all 
this  to  be  voluntary.  Those  who  had  little  to 
give  and  those  who  had  nothing  to  give  were  as 
welcome  to  all  the  church  benefits  as  were  the 
rich.  He  never  believed  in  or  practiced  the 
taking  of  fees.  As  he  said  himself:  *' Among 
us,  people  who  come  into  the  world  are  baptized, 
confirmed,  married  and  buried  without  cost  so 
far  as  the  pastor  is  concerned. '* 

He  had  neither  time  for  nor  patience  with 
laziness.  When  beggars  came  to  the  parsonage 
he  would  ask  them  ^^Why  don't  you  work!" 
The  answer  usually  was  **We  can't  find  work." 
He  would  say,  ^  *  I  '11  give  you  work. ' '  He  would 
put  them  to  work  gathering  stones  out  of  a 


OBERLIN  'S  INDUSTRIAL  AND  SOCIAL  LEADERSHIP     191 

field  or  breaking  stone  in  a  quarry.  He  in- 
structed all  his  people  to  send  all  beggars  to 
him.  Ere  long  not  one  was  found  in  the  parish. 
Oberlin  did  not  teach  agriculture  or  road 
building  or  handicraft  from  his  pulpit.  That 
was  the  place  for  the  Gospel  alone.  During 
every  slack  season  he  had  a  Thursday  after- 
noon meeting  at  which  he  instructed  his  people 
in  the  fundamental  ideas  that  underly  these 
pursuits  as  well  as  in  domestic  science  and 
nature  study. 

At  these  and  other  meetings  he  would  often 
ask  such  questions  as  the  following  which  were 
found  among  his  papers  after  death: 

*'Do  you  and  your  whole  family  come  regu- 
larly to  church?  Do  you  excuse  yourselves  be- 
cause you  need  the  time  to  gather  berries  or 
nuts?  Do  you  do  some  work  of  mercy  on  every 
Lord's  day?  Do  you  help  those  neighbors  who 
cannot  go  to  church  because  they  lack  proper 
clothes  to  get  what  they  need?  Is  your  private 
and  family  life  such  as  the  church  wants  it  to 
be?  Does  the  love  of  Christ  drive  you  to  keep 
the  peace  with  your  neighbors  and  to  make 
peace  where  there  is  strife?  Do  you  keep  your 
,,  cattle  from  troubling  your  neighbors  ?  Do  you 
keep  out  of  debt?  Do  you  get  fine  clothes  when 
you  can't  pay  for  them  or  owe  other  debts?  Do 
you  conscientuously  do  your  part  to  keep  the 
roads  in  good  repair?     Have  you  planted  at 


192        LUTHEKAN  CHURCH  IN  THE  COUNTRY 

least  twice  as  many  trees  along  the  highways 
as  there  are  members  in  your  household?  Do 
you  attend  the  town  meetings  regularly?  Do 
you  train  your  children  for  God  and  send  them 
to  school  regularly?  Are  you  helpful  to  keep 
up  the  forest?  Do  you  keep  an  unnecessary 
dog?  Do  you  keep  the  manure  from  wasting?'* 
Here  certainly  is  practical  theology  for  the 
country. 

Oberlin  did  all  in  his  power  to  keep  his  people 
from  going  to  law.  He  wanted  every  serious 
difficulty  between  neighbors  fixed  up  by  friendly 
arbitration.  He  organized  a  home-finding  sys- 
tem in  his  parish.  Orphans  and  neglected  chil- 
dren, he  said,  are  to  be  adopted  by  childless 
couples.  He  insisted  that  it  was  a  duty  and 
should  be  a  privilege  for  the  childless  to  take 
and  rear  homeless  and  helpless  little  ones.  For 
every  good  word  and  work  he  urged  coopera- 
tion. If  a  poor  man's  house  or  barn  burned,  if 
his  horse  or  cow  died,  or  if  any  other  serious 
loss  came  the  neighbors  were  expected  to  raise 
a  public  purse  for  the  reimbursement  of  the 
sufferer.  If  the  man  of  the  house  fell  sick  in 
seeding  or  harvest  time  the  neighbors  were  to 
take  turns  in  doing  the  needed  work.  A  beau- 
tiful community  life  was  that  in  Oberlin 's 
parish. 

Not  every  country  pastor  can  do  all  that 
Oberlin  did.    It  would  be  neither  necessary  nor 


OBEKLIN  'S  INDUSTBIAL.  AND  SOCIAL,  LEADERSHIP     193 

advisable  that  all  should  try  to  copy  Oberlin. 
Much,  however,  can  be  learned  from  him  that 
will  help  to  solve  the  country  church  problem. 
Let  every  country  pastor  carefully  study  that 
wonderful  man  and  his  wonderful  work. 

Then  let  him  adopt  and  adapt  whatever  he 
can  use  in  his  changed  situation.  For  this  he 
will  find  many  wise  counsels  and  many  good 
hints  in  Oberlin.  Prove  all  things.  Hold  fast 
that  which  is  good. 


CHAPTER  TWENTY-TWO. 

OTHER  INSPIRING  EXAMPLES. 

In  closing  our  study  of  the  Lutheran  church 
in  the  country  we  call  up  a  number  of  remark- 
able Lutheran  pastors  who  worked  wonders  in 
country  parishes.  Doubtless  a  long  roll  of  such 
country  worthies  could  be  made  out.  Numbers 
of  them  whose  names  are  not  writ  large  in  the 
annals  of  the  church  on  earth  have  their  names 
written  in  Heaven.  Long  after  they  rest  from 
their  labors  their  works  keep  on  following  them 
and  the  church  keeps  on  reaping  the  fruits  of 
their  sowing.  For  the  encouragement  of  the 
quiet  country  toiler  we  name  a  few  whom  God 
will  count  when  he  comes  to  make  up  his  jewels. 

Early  in  the  nineteenth  century  a  university 
bred  young  pastor  took  charge  of  a  debt  ridden 
and  discouraged  church  in  the  little  unknown 
and  unnoted  town  of  Kaisersworth.  By  work- 
ing faithfully  in  and  for  his  congregation, 
traveling  widely  to  raise  funds  to  pay  the 
church  debt,  visiting  and  ministering  to  the 
souls  of  the  prisoners  in  a  neighboring  town  he 
caught  a  vision  of  what  was  needed  and  what 
might  be  done  in  his  own  out  of  the  way  corner. 

194 


OTHER  INSPIRING  EXAMPLES  195 

Theodore  Fliedner  became  the  restorer  of  the 
New  Testament  deaconess  work,  built  the  first 
deaconess  motherhouse,  brought  the  first  dea- 
conesses to  America,  and  laid  the  foundation 
for  the  great  and  blessed  work  of  the  Inner 
Mission  which  is  one  of  the  crowning  glories 
of  the  Lutheran  Church.  A  modest  but  deeply 
consecrated  pastor  started  the  whole  movement 
in  an  obscure  country  parish. 

In  another  part  of  Germany  another  man  a 
few  years  younger  than  Fliedner  after  finishing 
his  university  and  theological  studies  was  tutor- 
ing and  vicaring  while  waiting  for  a  call.    After 
waiting  for  a  number  of  years  a  call  came  from 
an  out  of  the  way,  unattractive  country  village. 
It  made  such  an  unfavorable  impression  on  the 
gifted  and  earnest  young  preacher  that  he  said 
he  *  *  would  not  like  to  be  buried  in  such  a  place. ' ' 
But  he  was  conscientious  as  to  his  vocation. 
After  fighting  down  his  own  inclinations  he  had 
to  acknowledge  the  call  to  Neuendettelsau  as 
God's  call.    He  made  that  congregation  one  of 
the  crown  jewels  of  the  Lutheran  Church.    He 
made  that  erstwhile  unsavory  town  one  of  the 
holy  places  of  Zion.     It  became  a  colony  of 
mercy  and  from  it  went  out  streams  to  bless 
the  American  Indians  and  to  make  and  to  mould 
the  Iowa  Synod  whose  Missionary  spirit  has 
gathered,    organized,    and    made    spiritually 
strong  himdreds  of  congregations  in  the  coun- 


196       LUTHERAN  CHURCH  IN   THE  COUNTRY 

try  settlements  all  over  the  West.  Wilhelm 
Loehe  was  a  country  parson.  His  life  and 
work  ought  to  be  an  inspiration  to  toilers  in 
country  churches  when  they  are  inclined  to 
lament  their  ^^ narrow  sphere.'* 

Born  in  the  same  year  as  Loehe,  the  son  of 
a  minister,  graduate  of  a  university,  Ludwig 
Harms  had  to  candidate  for  a  number  of  years 
before  he  received  a  call  from  the  farmer  vil- 
lage of  Hermannsburg  in  the  Lueneburg  heath. 
The  '^Plattdeutsch'*  farmers  were  a  sturdy 
folk  who  attended  church  as  a  matter  of  course 
but  were  scarcely  aware  of  the  great  mission 
and  work  of  the  church  at  large.  The  young 
pastor  by  his  earnest  heart-searching  and  con- 
victing preaching  brought  about  a  religious 
awakening,  a  true  Lutheran  revival  in  the  con- 
gregation. Then  after  his  people  had  first 
given  tliemselves  to  the  Lord,  Harms  preached 
missionary  privilege  and  missionary  responsi- 
bility. 

The  result  was  that  that  congregation  of 
farmers  became  the  Hermannsburg  Missionary 
Society,  established  a  seminary  for  training 
missionaries,  built  a  mission  ship  to  carry  the 
missionaries  to  Africa  and  put  a  new  face  on 
large  sections  of  darkest  South  Africa  and 
other  heathen  lands.  See  what  a  country 
church  with  the  right  kind  of  pastor  can  do. 
Study  Ludwig  Harms.    Go  and  do  likewise. 


OTHER  INSPIRING  EXAMPLES  197 

Coming  to  the  American  Lutheran  Church 
we  can  make  brief  mention  of  but  a  few  Lu- 
theran country  church  pastors  who  made  them- 
selves and  their  churches  important  factors  in 
our  church  in  its  works  and  development. 

In  the  Virginia  valley  we  find  the  remarkable 
family  of  Henkels,  settled  at  New  Market  and 
making  that  village  a  landmark  in  American 
Lutheranism.  Paul  Henkel  was  pastor  of  a 
large  country  parish  with  the  village  church  of 
New  Market  as  its  center.  That  hard  working 
pastor  with  so  large  a  parish  found  time  to 
search  out  the  scattered  Lutherans  in  the  re- 
gions beyond.  He  gathered  many  congrega- 
tions and  was  the  prime  mover  in  organizing 
three  synods.  He  compiled  and  edited  the 
first  English  Lutheran  hymn  book  for  our 
church  in  the  South.  He  wrote  and  published 
the  first  English  Luther's  Small  Catechism. 
Country  pastors  can  do  much  for  the  church 
at  large. 

His  son  Ambrose  became  his  successor  in  the 
parish.  While  pastor  of  the  widespread  parish 
he,  with  the  assistance  of  other  members  of 
the  Henkel  family,  translated  the  whole  Book 
of  Concord  into  English  and  supervised  its 
printing  on  the  primitive  press  owned  by  the 
family.  What  literary  work  our  more  leisurely 
country  pastors  might  do  without  neglecting 
their  parish  duties.     Not   fewer  but  shorter 


198       LUTHERAN    CHURCH  IN  THE  COUNTRY 

pastoral  calls,  calls  for  spiritual  counsel  and 
uplift  are  needed.  Oh  the  precious  time  wasted 
by  long  visits  and  big  dinners  in  the  country.* 

In  1842  the  Eev.  David  F.  Bittle,  five  years 
after  he  left  the  seminary,  settled  down  to  a 
country  pastorate  in  Augusta  County,  Virginia. 
He  noticed  the  lack  of  education  and  the  ab- 
sence of  Lutheran  schools.  He  started  a  pri- 
vate school  and  erected  two  log  buildings  which 
grew  into  Roanoke  College. 

In  a  country  parish  at  Middletown,  Mary- 
land, Ezra  Kellar  was  born  and  reared.  His 
pastor  encouraged  him  to  get  an  education  and 
instructed  him  privately  to  prepare  him  for 
college.  When  ready  the  young  man  walked  to 
Gettysburg  and  arrived  with  fifty  cents  in  his 
pocket.  He  worked  his  way  through  college 
and  seminary,  became  a  travelling  Missionary 
in  the  Middle  West,  settled  down  in  a  country 
parish  at  Taneytown,  Maryland.  He  could  not 
forget  the  great  need  of  an  English  Lutheran 
college  in  Ohio;  worked  out  a  plan,  went  back 
and  founded  Wittenberg  College,  of  which  he 
became  the  first  President. 

In  1848  a  young  German  pastor  whom  stu- 
dent W.  A.  Passavant  had  found  working  in  a 
tailor  shop  in  Western  Pennsylvania,  and  whom 
Passavant  had  encouraged  and  helped  to  pre- 

*  study  chapters  xix,  xx,  and  xxi,  in  "The  Lutheran 
Pastor." 


OTHER  INSPIRING  EXAMPLES  199 

pare  for  the  ministry,  was  doing  editorial  work 
in  Allentown.  The  Eev.  S.  K.  Brobst  felt  the 
need  of  a  school  for  Lutheran  youth.  He  per- 
suaded a  country  pastor  to  come  to  Allentown 
and  assisted  him  to  start  the  school  which  after- 
wards became  Muhlenberg  College. 

A  pious  German  layman  was  found  in  a  coun- 
try congregation  at  Petroleum  Center,  Pa.,  by 
Dr.  Passavant.  Oil  was  discovered  on  his  land. 
He  agreed  to  set  aside  one-tenth  of  the  income 
from  oil  for  the  Lord^s  cause.  In  the  spring  of 
1865  Louis  Thiel,  placed  five  thousand  five  hun- 
dred and  five  dollars  in  the  hands  of  Dr.  Passa- 
vant. With  this  nest-egg  the  Doctor  founded 
Thiel  Hall  which  became  Thiel  College.*  Had 
there  been  no  Lutheran  congregation  at  Petrol- 
eum Center,  as  far  as  man  can  see,  Louis  Thiel 
would  not  have  become  the  founder  of  Thiel 
College.    A  country  church  started  Thiel. 

For  forty  years  the  Eev.  Mr.  Bernt  Muus 
was  pastor  of  a  country  charge  in  Goodhue 
County,  Minn.  He  was  deeply  interested  in 
the  welfare  of  his  thrifty  Norwegian  people. 
He  felt  the  need  of  a  good  Lutheran  college. 
He  agitated  this  among  the  other  Norwegian 
Lutheran  ministers  in  southern  Minnesota.  A 
few  of  these  country  pastors,  under  the  leader- 

*  See  "Life  and  Letters  of  Passavant,"  p.  501  ff.  Nearly 
aU  the  institutions  of  learning  started  by  Dr.  Passavant 
originated  in  country  congregations. 


200       LUTHEEAN  CHURCH  IN  THE  COUNTRY 

ship  of  Pastor  Muus  organized  themselves  into 
a  close  corporation,  secured  a  charter,  raised 
the  needed  money  and  started  St.  Olaf  College, 
now  one  of  the  strongest,  most  advanced  and 
most  aggressive  colleges  in  the  West.  Pastor 
Muus  might  have  said,  **I  have  enough  to  do  to 
look  after  my  large  and  widely  scattered 
parish.''  But  he  had  a  vision.  He  was  not  dis- 
obedient to  it.  To  him  that  wonderful  United 
Norwegian  Church  owes  much.  St.  Olaf  is 
making  the  United  Church  a  mighty  force  for 
Lutheranism  in  the  West. 

In  the  country  town  of  Winfield,  Kan.,  Mr. 
J.  P.  Baden  was  an  earnest  member  of  the 
German  Church  of  the  Missouri  Synod.  He 
saw  the  need  of  an  English  college.  He  founded 
St.  John's  English  Lutheran  College  of  Win- 
field.  The  country  church  made  Mr.  Baden. 
Mr.  Baden  made  possible  the  college. 

A  group  of  Norwegian  country  pastors  in 
the  famous  valley  of  the  Eed  Eiver  of  the 
North  felt  the  need  of  a  Lutheran  college  for 
the  great  crop  of  young  Scandinavians.  To- 
gether they  planned  and  prayed.  Out  of  all 
this  came  Concordia  College,  Moorhead,  Minn. 
It  is  doing  a  wonderful  work  in  saving  a  multi- 
tude of  young  Lutherans  to  their  church  and 
making  them  efficient  to  serve. 

In  1861  the  young  Swedish  pastor  E.  Norel- 
ius,  whom  Dr.   Passavant  had   helped   to   a 


OTHER  INSPIRING  EXAMPLES  201 

college  education,  was  serving  two  churches  in 
the  towns  of  Red  Wing  and  Vasa,  Minn.  In 
addition  to  his  regular  charge  he  was  looking 
after  the  scattered  Swedes  in  the  many  sparse 
settlements  of  the  Upper  Mississippi  Valley. 
He  cheerfully  shared  the  privations  and 
poverty  of  his  people.  With  it  all  he  started 
a  private  school.  This  school  he  nursed  up  and 
rallied  friends  around  it  until  it  became  Gus- 
tavus  Adolphus  College.  While  fostering  his 
school  and  doing  the  work  of  an  evangelist 
among  his  pioneer  people  he  also  founded  the 
orphans  *  home  at  Vasa,  Minn.  What  wonders 
one  man  can  do  in  the  country  if  he  has  the  right 
faith  in  God  and  faith  in  God's  people.  Such 
faith  and  consecration  God  always  honors. 
Such  hope  maketh  not  ashamed. 

The  Rev.  Carl  Swensson  was  pastor  in  the 
little  town  of  Lindsborg,  Kan.  The  country 
around  him  was  full  of  thrifty,  progressive 
Swedish  farmers.  Swensson  felt  that  they 
ought  to  have  a  college  in  their  midst.  He  was 
counselled  and  encouraged  by  Dr.  Passavant. 
He  founded  Bethany  College.  He  became  the 
first  president  and  held  the  office  up  to  his  sud- 
den and  widely  lamented  death.  He  impressed 
his  own  enthusiastic  and  optimistic  faith  on  the 
school.  It  has  been  a  wonder  and  a  joy  to  the 
whole  Lutheran  Church.  The  child  of  a  country 
church  whose  pastor  had  a  vision.     It  called 


202       LUTHERAN  CHURCH  IN  THE  COUNTRY 

him  to  expect  great  things  from  God  and  to 
undertake  great  things  for  God. 

While  North  Central  Wisconsin  was  still 
mostly  forest,  while  the  Indians  had  their 
cabins  and  their  tepees  in  the  sheltered  places 
and  by  the  rivers  and  lakes  an  ox-team  brought 
a  family  and  its  belongings  into  that  region. 
There  were  occasional  clearings  in  the  woods 
with  log  cabins  and  pioneer  Norwegian  settlers. 
The  ox-team  was  driven  by  the  Rev.  Mr. 
Homme.  He  settled  on  the  site  of  Wittenberg. 
He  gathered  other  settlers  around  him.  He 
started  and  gave  its  name  to  the  town.  He 
hunted  up  the  scattered  settlers.  He  preached 
and  catechised  and  ministered  to  the  souls  of  all. 
Ere  long  he  gathered  several  congregations  and 
built  log  churches.  He  started  a  Lutheran  mis- 
sion among  the  Indians.  The  heart  of  it  was  a 
Lutheran  school.  He  founded  an  orphans' 
home  and  later  an  old  people's  home  which  are 
today  prosperous  and  blessed  Bethesdas  of  the 
United  Norwegian  Church.  He  started  a  Lu- 
theran Academy,  which  is  today  a  Lutheran 
Indian  school.  There  is  also  a  Lutheran  Indian 
Church  there  today. 

Behold  what  one  consecrated  country  pastor, 
with  no  original  capital  but  faith  in  God  and 
faith  in  God's  people,  can  do ! 

Not  many  years  ago  the  Bev.  P.  C.  Wike, 
fresh  from  the  Chicago  Seminary,  was  pastor 


OTHER  INSPIRING  EXAMPLES  203 

of  the  Colburn,  Indiana,  country  charge.  A 
disciple  of  the  above  mentioned  Henkels,  he  be- 
lieved in  the  Lutheran  academy.  He  made  up 
his  mind  that  with  the  help  of  God  there  should 
be  an  academy  in  Colburn.  And  as  he  believed 
so  it  came  to  pass.  Colburn  academy  was  es- 
tablished. It  grew  into  Weidner  Institute  in 
Mulberry,  Indiana.  It  has  been  a  great  bless- 
ing to  scores  of  country  boys  and  girls  in  its 
few  years  of  existence. 

We  cannot  begin  to  mention  all  the  country 
parishes  in  which  consecrated  pastors  have  done 
great  things  for  the  Kingdom  of  God.  God 
knows  them.  They  are  written  down  in  His 
Book.    Some  day  the  book  will  be  opened. 

We  want  to  give  the  last  word  to  Dr.  Passa- 
vant.  We  want  him  to  make  the  last  impres- 
sion. He  was  himself  the  product  of  a  country 
congregation.  While  a  college  and  seminary 
student  he  organized  country  Sunday  schools 
and  congregations  and  canvassed  in  the  Alle- 
gheny Mountains  for  the  American  Bible  So- 
ciety. His  first  charge  was  in  the  country.  He 
always  had  a  deep  interest  in  the  country 
church.  During  his  pastorate  of  the  First 
Church,  Pittsburgh,  he  was  a  frequent  week- 
day preacher  in  the  country  churches  round 
about.  It  might  be  hard  to  find  a  country 
church  within  sixty  or  eighty  miles  of  Pitts- 
burgh in  which  he  did  not  preach  and  in  which 


204       LUTHERAN  CHURCH  IN  THE  COUNTRY 

he  did  not  take  a  deep  interest.     Many  were 
gathered  and  organized  by  him. 

After  he  laid  down  his  work  as  pastor  of  the 
First  Church  to  give  himself  to  the  larger  work 
of  his  many  institutions  he  spent  most  of  his 
Sundays,  even  up  to  his  death,  founding  and 
helping  country  churches.  The  story  of  the 
founding  and  building  of  the  Baden,  Beaver 
County,  parish,  reads  like  a  romance.  It  was 
a  life-long  custom  to  preach  not  only  in  his 
churches,  but  in  all  the  school  houses  of  each 
district.  In  this  way  he  reached  many  along 
the  distant  highways  and  hedges.  And  what  a 
seelsorger  he  was  as  he  went  from  house  to 
house,  read  the  Word  and  kneeled  and  prayed 
with  all.  We  cannot  tell  the  story  here.  Every 
Lutheran  pastor  ought  to  study  *  ^  The  Life  and 
Letters  of  Passavant.'^  It  will  make  a  better 
man  and  a  better  minister  of  every  one  who 
reads  it.  The  country  pastor  will  find  in  it 
much  inspiration. 

0  Land,  Land,  hear  thou  the  Word  of  the 
Lord. 

And  let  us  not  be  weary  in  well  doing:  for  in 
due  season  we  shall  reap,  if  we  faint  not.  As  we 
have  therefore  opportunity,  let  us  do  good  unto 
all  men,  especially  unto  them  who  are  of  the 
household  of  faith. 


Dear  are  mem'ries  of  youth,  and  *mongst  others, 

Dear  the  cross-roads  church  near  the  old  farm, 
Where  the  faith  of  our  fathers  and  mothers 

Oft  found  voice  in  its  infinite  charm; 
Where  from  miles  'round  the  people  assembled. 

Feasting  faith  on  the  fat  of  the  Word; 
Where  the  air  when  they  praised  fairly  trembled; 

Where  they  hushed  for  the  voice  of  the  Lord. 

There  the  preacher  hurled  Law  at  the  sinners 

And  gave  Gospel  to  hungry  and  poor. 
Feeding  babes  with  the  milk  as  beginners 

And  strong  meat  to  the  strong  and  mature; 
Oft  as  pastor  to  Jesus  appealing 

E'er  to  shepherd  the  newly  cleansed  lamb; 
Often  leading  the  sheep  for  their  healing 

To  the  Body  and  Blood,  their  lone  balm. 

But  the  years  have  wrought  change,  more's  the  pity! 
.  Till  the  flock,  goodly  then,  is  now  few; 
For  the  folk  flee  the  farm  for  the  city. 

And  a  cross-roads  church  failure  seems  due. 
There  the  pasture  was  sweet,  with  sweet  waters. 

And  the  Shepherd's  sweet  voice  called  the  sheep; 
Yet  the  old  fathers'  own  sons  and  daughters. 

Unconcerned,  let  their  consciences  sleep. 

Thus  myself,  who  with  shame  and  contrition 

Here  confess  me  unfilial  found. 
Yet  the  old  church  has  still  a  blest  mission. 

To  work  weal  for  the  folk  miles  around. 
As  for  me,  let  me  deem  it  dear  duty 

To  help  as  I'm  able  and  ought. 
That  the  old  church  may  bloom  with  new  beauty. 

And  the  faith  of  our  fathers  be  taught. 

— Alfred  Ramsay,  D.D» 


INDEX 


Abandoned  churches,  61,  63 

64.   65 
Absentee  landlordism,  25,  72 

pastors,  83,  84,  100,  131 
Adult    confirmation    classes, 

124,  169 
Agricultural  college,  55,  139 

science,  54 
Amusements  in  country,  46 
Amusement  center,  141 
Antagonism,   26 
Anti-religion,  76 
Architecture,  54 
Ashenhurst,  Dr.,  61 
Augustana   Synod,   110,   111 
Automobile,  47 

Baden,  Mr.  J.  P.,  200 
Baptists,   59 
Barn-raising,   44 
Base  of  supply,  124 
Bethany  College,  201 
Bible  classes,  124,  169 
Biology,  54 

Bittle,  Rev.  David  F.,  198 
Brobst.  Rev.  S.  K.,  191 
Building  for   school,   50 

Carney,  Mabel,  54 
Carver,  Prof.  Thos.  N.,  25 


Catechization,  170 
Causes  of  decline,  71  fC., 
79  fP. 

of  synods,  99 
Census,  24 
Characteristics     of    farmer, 

34  ff. 
Chemistry,  11 
Church  building,  133 

decline,  71 

giving,  58,  59 

in  country,  19  ff. 

school  teacher,  55 
Churchless  town,  65 
Child  life  in  country,  41,  43 
Chores,  42 

Class  antagonism,  26 
Clutz,  Dr.  J.  A.,  110 
Coal  regions,  122 
Coarting,  65 
Commercialized      amuse- 

ments,  117 
Community  revival,  161 
Compulsory  education,  51 
Congregationalism,   62 
Conveniences  for  school,  51 
Concordia  college,  200 
Conservatism  of  farmers,  34 
Country  bred  men,  56 

depletion,  28 

feuds,   37 


207 


208 


INDEX 


Country  home,   42 
life,  42,  43,  44 
loafers,   37 
ministers,  79.  139 
parents,    43 
population,  29,  56 
people  and  Church,  38,  79 
school.  38,  49,  50,  129 
school  teacher,  53 
young  people,  53 

Danes,  106. f. 

Danish   Bv.  Luth.   Ch.,   107 

Synods,  107 
Darwinian  Science,  76 
Day  in  city,  46 
Decline  of  church,  63,  71  f. 

117,  119 
Degrading  conversation,   46 
Deserted    churches,    61,    63, 
64 

farms,  17  f. 
Desire  for  land,  13,  14 
Deindoerfer,   Dr.,   118 
Dichotomy,  15 
Dissention  in  church,   64 
Division   in    churches,    144, 

145 
Doctrine  of  sin,  86 
Domestic   science,   54 
Dutch,   92. 

Bastebut   Pennsylvania,   100 
Economic  conditions,  23  ft., 

72 
Education,  of  ministers,   79 

for  country,  52 
Educational    conditions 

48  ff. 


Effects  of  sin,  16 

English     Lutheranism,     62, 

146,  147 
English  Lutheran  Churches, 

62 
Environment,  31 
Enthusiasm     of     ministery, 

124 
Episcopalians,   59 
Equipment  of  schools,  50 
Examples,   174    ff. 
Extension  lectures,  55 
Extent  of  Luth.  Ch..  98 

Fall,  The,  15  ff. 
Fallen  man,  16 
Fanatics,  160 
Farm,  17 

boy,  45 

buildings,   54 
Farmers'   church,  63 
Farmer-giving,   74 
Farm  home,  41,  42 
Farmer  and  nature,  33 
Farmer's  wife,  42,  128 
"Federated    Churches,"    150 
Feuds  in  country,  37,  80 
Fleidner,  Theo.,   195  ff. 
Fiske,  G.  Walter,  29 
Foght,  H.  W.,  54 
Foundation  of  society,  17 
Fraternal  orders,  117 
Freeman,  Harlan,  N.,  64 
Fritschel,  Dr.,  118 
Furnishings   for   school,   50 

General     economic     condi- 
tions, 24  ff. 
Lutheran,  bodies,  99 


INDEX 


209 


General  Synod,  109 
Gerhart,  Mr.  H.  B.,  110 
German  Rationalism,  138 
Gill,  C.  O.  150 
Good  farmer,  35 
Government,  18 
Grace  of  God,   32 
Garage,   84 
Greenwald,   Dr.,   62 
Grossman,  Rev.,  118 
Grundvlg,   Bishop,  106 
Gunsaulus,  Dr.,  57 

Harms,  Ludwig,  196 
Heart  power,  166 
Hartt,  R.  L.,  61 
Heathenism   in   country,   60 
Hegelian  philosophy,  76 
Heisey,  Rev.  P.  H.,  109 
Henkel,  Rev.  Paul,  197 
Hermansburg,  Miss.  Society 
196 

Heretical  sects,  160 

High  school,  51 
school   system,   107 

Hindrances,  128 

Home  life,  40,  42 

Homme,   Rev.,  202 

Hopeful  situation,  126 

Human   nature,    38 

Fuskings,  44 

Hutchins,    Rev.,    H.    L.,    66 

Hygiene,  55 

Illinois,  29,  65,  116 
Immigration,  92 
Impurity,  52 
Indiana,  29,  64 
Individualist,  73 


Influence  of  teachers,  77 
Insanity  in  country,  41 
Inspiring   examples,    175   ft. 
Inspiration    from    teachers, 

55 
Influence     of     Invironment, 

31,  32 
Inner  Mission,  154,  195 
Inspiration     of     Scriptures, 

93,  94.  95 
Inter-m^riages,   112 
Irreligion,  76 
Iowa,  118 

Synod,   118 
Isolation  in  country,  40,  41, 

74 

Joint  Synod,  Ohio,  102 

Keller,  Dr.,  Ezra,  62,  198 
Kern,   0.   J.,   54 
Kindergarten,   184 

Language  question,  144,  188, 

146 
Large  parishes,   116 
Laziness  of  farmer,  36 
Landlords,  26 
Land  owners,  13,  26 
Leaders  from  country,  56 
Liberal  Theology,  85 
Life  in  country,  19  ff. 
Literature,  114 
Loehe,   Dr.,   118,   196 
Loss  of  population,  28 
Lower  taxes,  49 
Love  of  education,  130 
Love  of  land,  13,  14,  17 
Lure  of  city,  14 


210 


INDEX 


Luther  League,  173 
Lutheran  59,  91,  126 

characteristics,  127 

divisions,    145 

farmer,  91,  96,  130 

133 

minister,  130 

preaching,   13,   165 

revival,  163 

research,   95 

settlements,  60 

situation,  91  ff.,  126 

stock,    126 

theology,   23,    93,   95 

Man,  11 

and  soil,  11  ff. 
Ma.n,   47 
Maine,  61 

Marshall    county,    64 
McDowell,  Dr.,  S.  J.,  109 
Meditative  life,   34 
Men  for  ministry,  124 
Merging  churches,   143 
Methodists,   59 
Michigan,  65 
Middle  West,  62 
Minister,    79 
Ministers'   salaries,    131 
Missouri,   29,   65 

Synod,  93,  118 
Mississippi    Valley,    96 
Model  family,  42,  43,  44 
Modern  improvements,  47 
Moody    Bible    Institute,    80 
Moral    character,    47 
Mother  earth,  11,  16 
Mott,  John  R..   56 
Muss,  Rev.  B.,  199 


Nature  in  country,  33,  73 

students,  143 
Negative  criticism,  93 
Neighborhood   life,   44 

sociability,  129 
New  England,  29,  61 
New  York,  62 
Norelius,  Rev.  E.,  200 
Normal  schools,  54,  77 

Oberlin,    178    ff. 

Old  world,  168 

Ohio,  62 

Open  country  church,  63 

Openness  of  farmer,  38 

Orthodoxism,   114 

Overworked  farmer,  41,  73 

Pacific  coast  states,  96 
Palatines,   92 
Parties,   45 

Pastors  for  country,  79 
Pastoral    charges,    100 
Pastors'   salaries,   131   ff. 
Pastoral  visiting,  168 
Patience  of  farmer,  34 
Patten,  Prof.,  152 
Peery,  Prof.  R.  B.,  109 
"Pennsylvania  Dutch,"  92 
Periodic   outings,   46 
Personal  pastoral  work,  168 
Philosophy,  14 
Pinchot  Gifford,   150 
Pittsburgh  Synod,  125 
Population    of    country,    28, 

58 
Pragmatic  Psychology,  76 
Preaching    in    country,    83, 

84,   86.   131,   165 


INDEX 


211 


Presbyterian  Church,  59,  60 
Private  seelsorge,  167 
Privations  of  country,  17 
Public  school  tax,  49 
Psychological         conditions, 

31  ff..  73 
Puritans,  59 

Question  box,  170 
Qucstionaire,   99 

Rackeent  system,   26 
Rauschenbush,   151 
Real  estate,  13 
Recreation    for    farmer,    46, 

140 
Reformed  Churches,  137,  144 
Religious  conditions,  58   ff.. 
76 

survey,  61,  63,  64 
Remedies,  137  ft.,  149,  159 
Retired  farmer,  74 
Renters,  25,  72. 
Revelation,  76 
Roman  Catholics,  59 
Revivals,  160,  161,  162 
Ronoak  college,  198 
Rural  mail,  47 

mind,  31  ff.,  73 

ministers,   80 

population,   28,   29 

survey,  60,  61,  64 

type,  32 

Salzburgers,   92 
Saving  country  church,  138 
Scandinavians,  93 
Scandinavian        Lutherans, 
110,  111 


School     administration,     49, 
50 
district,   48 
directors,  50 
equipment,  50 
conditions,  76 
life,  47 
trustees,  49 
Scientific   farming,   96 
Scotch  Irish,  31,  163 
Seelsorge,   167 
Secular  preaching,  84 
Science  of  Agriculture,  54 
Shiftlessness,   36 
Sin,  15 

Situation  in  country,  60 
Social  conditions,  40  ff.,  74 

events,  45 
Sociology,   76 
Social  centers,  55 
service,  150 
pastimes,   44 
Soil,  11  ff. 
Soul,  15 

Spiritual  situation,  137 
St.  Olaf  college,  200 
State  schools,  76 
Strassburg,   177 
Strong,  Dr.  Josiah,  28 
Stuber,  Johan,  178 
Sunday  visiting.  75 
Sunday-school,  171 
Institute,  172 
leaders,  172 
Sunday  observance,  75 
Survey  bulletins,   63 
Swensson,   Dr.  Carl,  201 
Synods,  99 
Tax  collector,  48 


212 


INDEX 


Taxes,  49 

Teachers,  49,  50,  53,  77,  173 

Teaching  country  school,  54 

Telephone,  47 

Tenant  class,  26 

farmer,  24  f.,  25,  73 

population,   27 

"rights,"    26 

wife,  2.7 
Text  books,  52,  72 
"The  Standard,"  64 
Thiel,  Louis,   199 
Thiel  college,  199 
Threshings,    44 
Traditionalism,  34 
Trolley  car,  47 
Trustees  of  school,  49 
Type  of  piety,  117 

Unattkactive  churches,  133 

United      Danish      Lutheran 
Church,  107 

Union  churches,  100 
of  churches,  96,  143 
Lutheran   churches,   147 

Union  revivals,  161,  162 


United    Norwegian    Church, 

115  ff. 
Unity  of  Lutherans,   98 
Unproductive   soil,   72 
Unreasoning     conservatism, 

34 
Unscientific   farming,   72 

Vacant   churches,  65 
Vermont,  62 

Weak  churches,  159 
Weber,  Dr.  H.,  110 
Western    Pennsylvania,    121 
Wife  of  farmer,  35,  42 

of  tenant,  27 
Wike,  Rev.   P.   C,   202 
Wilson,  Dr.,  83 
Worldliness,   114 

Yabger,  Dr.,   109 
Young  people  28,  116,  129 
peoples'    meetings,    46    ff. 
work,  116 

Zoology,  54 


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BIBLIOGRAPHY 


Bailey. — The  Country  Life  Movement,  MacMlllan  Co.. $1.25 
Ashenhurst. — The  Day  of  the  Country  Church,  Punk 

&  Wagnalls,  N.Y 1.00 

Beard. — The  Story  of  Jno.  Fred.  Oberlin,  Pilgrim  Press  1.25 

Wilson. — The  Church  of  the  Open  Country,  Missionary 

Education  Movement,  N.  Y 60 

Wilson. — ^The  Church  at  the  Center,  Missionary  Edu- 
cation Movement   50 

H.  L.  Freeman. — The  Kingdom  and  the  Farm,  Fleming 

Revell    Co 75 

G.  W.  Fiske.— The  Challenge  of  the  Country.  Y.M.CA,    .75 


COLUMBIA  UNIVERSITY  ^ 

0035519797 


Gerberding 

Lutheran  ohiirch  ya  the  country 


^?CT  2   i  1S16 


